dedicated to the transportation of luggage. Grant it is laughable. I do
not laugh."

"And I lack time to weep," said Melicent.

So, when the Jew had told his tale and gone, young Melicent arose and
went into a chamber painted with the histories of Jason and Medea,
where her brother Count Emmerick hid such jewels as had not many equals
in Christendom.

She did not hesitate. She took no thought for her brother, she did not
remember her loved sisters: Ettarre and Dorothy were their names, and
they also suffered for their beauty, and for the desire it quickened in
the hearts of men. Melicent knew only that Perion was in captivity and
might not look for aid from any person living save herself.

She gathered in a blue napkin such emeralds as would ransom a pope. She
cut short her marvellous hair and disguised herself in all things as a
man, and under cover of the ensuing night slipped from the castle. At
Manneville she found a Venetian ship bound homeward with a cargo of
swords and armour.

She hired herself to the captain of this vessel as a servant, calling
herself Jocelin Gaignars. She found no time--wherein to be afraid or to
grieve for the estate she was relinquishing, so long as Perion lay in
danger.

Thus the young Jocelin, though not without hardship and odd by-ends of
adventure here irrelevant, came with time's course into a land of
sunlight and much wickedness where Perion was.