“Not offered for ransom,” said Cadfael, reckoningthe odds with careful moderation in return, “and held veryprivately. It argues a more than ordinary animosity. That will be aprice that comes high. Even if he will take a price.”

“And in order to pay what may be asked,” said Hughruefully, “Laurence d’Angers, so Leicester’sagent says, has been enquiring for him everywhere without result.That name would be known to the earl, though not the names of theyoung men of his following. I am sorry to bring such news. Olivierde Bretagne was in Faringdon. And now Olivier de Bretagne isprisoner, and God knows where.”

After the silence, a shared pause for breath andthought, and the mutual rearrangement of the immediate concernsthat troubled them both, Cadfael said simply: “He is a youngman like other young men. He knows the risks. He takes them withopen eyes. What is there to be said for one more than therest?”

“But this was a risk, I fancy, that he could not foresee.That Gloucester’s own son should turn against him! And a riskOlivier was least armed to deal with, having so little conceptionof treachery. I don’t know, Cadfael, how long he had beenamong the garrison, or what the feeling was among the young knightsthere. It seems many of them were with Olivier. The castle wasbarely completed, Philip filled it and wanted it defended well, andwhen it lay under siege Robert failed to lift a finger to save it.There’s bitterness there. But Leicester will go on trying tofind them all, to the last man. And if we’re all to meet soonat Coventry, at least there may be agreement on a release ofprisoners on both sides. We shall all be pressing for it, men ofgoodwill from both factions.”

“Olivier ploughs his own furrow, and cuts his ownswathe,” said Cadfael, staring eastward through the timberwall before him, far eastward into drought and sand and sun, andthe glittering sea along the shores of the Frankish kingdom ofJerusalem, now menaced and in arms. The fabled world of Outremer,once familiar to him, where Olivier de Bretagne had grown up tochoose, in young manhood, the faith of his unknown father. “Idoubt,” said Cadfael slowly, “any prison can hold himlong. I am glad you have told me, Hugh. Bring me word if you getany further news.”