But just at the moment when it seemed as if all hope of mercy was at an end, the gentle Queen arose and threw herself at her husband’s feet, and her silvery voice rose clear above the faint murmur rising in the throng.

“Ah, gentle Sire, since I have crossed the sea with great peril, I have never asked you anything; now I humbly pray, for the sake of the Son of the Holy Mary and your love of me, that you will have mercy on these six brave men!”

Raymond’s breath came so thick and fast as he waited for the answer, that he scarce heard it when it came, though the ringing cheer which broke from the lips of those who stood by told him well its purport.

The King’s face, gloomy at first, softened as he gazed upon the graceful form of his wife, and with a smile he said at last: 

“Dame, I wish you had been somewhere else this day; but I cannot refuse you.  I put them into your keeping; do with them what you will.”

Raymond felt himself summoned by a glance from the Prince.  The Queen-mother had bidden him take the men, and feast them royally, and send them away with rich gifts.

As the youth who had done so much for them forced his way to the side of the Prince, his face full of a strange enthusiasm and depth of feeling, the citizens looked one upon another and whispered: 

“Sure it was true what the women said to us.  That was the youth with the face of painted saint that we saw within the walls of the city.  Sure the Blessed Saints have been watching over us this day, and have sent an angel messenger down to deliver us in our hour of sorest need!”

CHAPTER XVI.  IN THE OLD HOME.

The memorable siege of Calais at an end, Edward, his Queen and son and nobility generally, set sail for England, where many matters were requiring the presence of the sovereign after an absence so prolonged.

When the others of the Prince’s comrades were thronging on hoard to accompany him homewards, Gaston and Raymond sought him to petition for leave to remain yet longer in France, that they might revisit the home of their youth and the kind-hearted people who had protected them during their helpless childhood.

Leave was promptly and willingly given, though the Prince was graciously pleased to express a hope that he should see his faithful comrades in England again ere long.

It had begun to be whispered abroad that these two lads with their knightly bearing, their refinement of aspect, and their fearlessness in the field, were no common youths sprung from some lowly stock.  That there was some mystery surrounding their birth was now pretty well admitted, and this very mystery encircled them with something of a charm —­ a charm decidedly intensified by the aspect of Raymond, who never looked so much the creature of flesh and blood as did his brother and the other young warriors of Edward’s camp.  The fact, which was well