"In peril, sayest thou?" asked Hugo. He was learning his lesson of
self-control fast.

"Why else are we mewed up here in the castle?" demanded the man-at-arms.
"I be weary of so much mewing-up. If the king will have our young lord
Josceline to keep in his hand so that he may thereby muzzle his father,
why, he is king. And he must have his will. Sooner or later he will have
it. Why, who can stand against the king?"

"And how can that muzzle his father?" asked Hugo.

"Why, if Lord De Aldithely, who is a great soldier, and a great help to
victory wherever he fighteth, should join with King Louis of France to
fight against our king--why, then it would go ill with Josceline if he
were biding in the king's hand. And, knowing this, his father would
forbear to fight, and so be muzzled."

"And Josceline would not otherwise be harmed?" asked Hugo.

"Why, no man knoweth that," admitted the man-at-arms. "The rage of the
king against all who have offended him is now fierce, and he stoppeth
at nothing."

"I know not so much as some of such matters," observed Hugo, quietly.

"Nor needest thou," answered the man-at-arms. "It is sufficient for
such as be of thy tender years to know the whereabouts of the postern
key. I would ask the young lord Josceline, but, merry as he is, he
turneth haughty if one ask what he termeth a meddling question. He
would say, 'What hast thou to do with the whereabouts of the postern