Then it was that Gaston began to wonder why he still saw nothing either of Raymond or of the faithful Roger, who was almost like his shadow.  He asked all whom he met if anything had been seen of his brother, but the answer was always the same —­ nobody knew anything about him.  Nobody appeared to have seen him since the brothers rode into battle side by side; and the young knight began to feel thoroughly uneasy.

Of course there had been some killed and wounded in the battle upon both sides, though the English loss was very trifling.  Still it might have been Raymond’s fate to be borne down in the struggle, and Gaston, calling some of his own personal attendants about him, and bidding them take lanterns in their hands, went forth to look for his brother upon the field where the encounter had taken place.

The field was a straggling one, as the combat had taken the character of a rout at the end, and the dead and wounded lay at long intervals apart.  Gaston searched and searched, his heart growing heavier as he did so, for his brother was very dear to him, and he felt a pang of bitter self-reproach at having left him, however inadvertently, to bear the brunt of the battle alone.  But search as he would he found nothing either of Raymond or Roger, and a new fear entered into his mind.

“Can he have been taken prisoner?”

This did not seem highly probable.  The French, bold enough at the outset when they had believed themselves secure of an easy victory, had changed their front mightily when they had discovered the trap set for them by their foes, and in the end had thought of little save how to save their own lives.  They would scarce have burdened themselves with prisoners, least of all with one who did not even hold the rank of knight.  This disappearance of his brother was perplexing Gaston not a little.  He looked across the moonlit plain, now almost as light as day, a cloud of pain and bewilderment upon his face.

“By Holy St. Anthony, where can the boy be?” he cried.

Then one of his men-at-arms came up and spoke.

“When we were pursuing the French here to the left, back towards their own lines, I saw a second struggle going on away to the right.  The knight with the black visor seemed to be leading that pursuit, and though I could not watch it, as I had my own work to do here, I know that some of our men took a different line, there along by yon ridge to the right.”

“Let us go thither and search there,” said Gaston, with prompt decision, “for plainly my brother is not here.  It may be he has been following another flying troop.  We will up and after him.  Look well as you ride if there be any prostrate figures lying in the path.  I fear me he may have been wounded in the rout, else surely he would not have stayed away so long.”