"Shrewdly put, young sir. I will be frank with you. I too am a stranger,
and sooner or later I may fall into discredit, and the power of the church
be too much for me. When I saw your mistress to-day I said to myself: Here
is an English lady of rank, with a castle and estate in England; should I
have to fly-and I have one very dear to me, for whose sake I value my
life-it might be well for me that I should have one friend in England who
would act as protectress to her should aught befall me. Your mistress is a
stranger here, and in the hands of enemies. I may be of use to her. I know
this population of Paris, and can perhaps give her better information of
what is going on both at the court and in the gutter than any other man,
and may be able to render her assistance when she most needs it; and would
ask but in payment that, should I come to England, she will extend her
protection to my daughter until I can find a home and place her there. You
see I am playing an open game with you."

"I will reply as frankly," Guy said. "When I came in here it was, as I
told the man-at-arms my companion, with the thought that one who had
noticed us so shrewdly, and had recognized me so quickly in the crowd, was
no ordinary mountebank, but a keen, shrewd man who had some motive for
thus addressing me, and I see that my view was a right one. As to your
proposal I can say naught before I have laid it before my mistress, but
for myself I may say at once that it recommends itself to me as excellent.
We are, as you say, strangers here, and know of no one from whom we might
obtain information as to what is going on. My mistress, if not an actual
prisoner, is practically so, being held with her children as hostages for
my lord's loyalty to France. She is the kindest of ladies, and should she
authorize me to enter into further communication with you, you may be sure
that she would execute to the full the undertaking you ask for on behalf
of your daughter. Where can I see you again? This is scarce a place I
could often resort to without my visits being noticed, if, as is likely