clear sight above the moving throng below. A very personable man,trimly built and moving with an elegant arrogance, his fair headuncovered, a short cloak swinging on one shoulder. Thirty-fiveyears old, perhaps, and well assured of his worth. He reached thecobbles of the court, and the crowd parted to give him passage, asif they accepted him at his own valuation. But nothing there,surely, to cause Yves to check and stare, gathering dark brows intoa scowl of animosity.

“He?” said Yves through his teeth. “Darehe show his face here?” And suddenly his ice meltedinto fire, and with a leap he was out of the saddle and surgingforward into the path of the advancing stranger, and his sword wasout of the scabbard and held at challenge, spinning grooms andhorses aside out of his way. His voice rose loud and hard.

“You, de Soulis! Betrayer of your cause and your comrades.Dare you come among honest men?”

For one shocked instant every other voice within the court wasstunned into silence; the next, every voice rose in a clamour ofalarm, protest and outrage. And as the first clash had sent peoplescurrying out of the vortex, so an immediate reaction drew manyinward in recoil, to attempt to prevent the threatened conflict.But de Soulis had whirled to confront his challenger, and had hisown sword naked in his hand, circling about him to clear ground forhis defence. And then they were at it in earnest, steel shriekingagainst steel.

Chapter Three

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Hugh sprang down, flinging his bridle on hishorse’s neck for a groom to retrieve, and plunged into thering of affrighted people surrounding the contestants, out of rangeof the flashing swords. Cadfael followed suit, with resignedpatience but without haste, since he could hardly do more or betterto quiet this disturbance than Hugh would be able to do. It couldnot go on long enough to be mortal, there were too many powers,both regal and clerical, in residence here to permit anything sounseemly, and by the noise now reverberating on all sides from wallto wall around the court, every one of those powers would bepresent and voluble within minutes.