“Raymond, I have spoken to the Prince.  He is ready and willing to give me men at any time I ask him.  Perchance he will even come himself, if duty calls him not elsewhere.  The thing is now in mine own hands.  Brother, when shall the attempt be made?”

Raymond smiled at the eager question.

“Sir Knight, thou art more the warrior than I. Thou best knowest the day and the hour for such a matter.”

Gaston passed his hand through his hair, and a softer light shone in his eyes.  His brother knew of whom he was thinking, and he was not surprised at the next words.

“Raymond, methinks before I do aught else I must see her once more.  My heart is hungry for her.  I think of her by day and dream of her by night.  Perchance there might be some more peaceful way of winning entrance to Saut than by battering down the walls, and doing by hap some hurt to the precious treasure within.  Brother, wilt thou wander forth with me once again —­ thou and I, and a few picked men, in case of peril by the way, to visit Saut by stealth?  We would go by the way of Father Anselm’s and our old home.  I have a fancy to see the dear old faces once again.  Thou hast, doubtless, seen them all this year that has passed by, but I not for many an one.”

“I saw Father Anselm in Bordeaux,” answered Raymond; “and good Jean, when he heard I was there, came all the way to visit me.  But I adventured not myself so near the den of Navailles.  The Brothers would not permit it.  They feared lest I might fall again into his power.  Gladly, indeed, would I come and see them once again.  I have pictured many times how, when thou art Lord of Saut, I will bring my Joan to visit thee, and show her to good Jean and Margot and saintly Father Anselm.  I would fain talk to them of that day.  They ever feel towards us as though we were their children in very truth.”

There was no difficulty in obtaining the Prince’s sanction to this absence from Bordeaux.  He gave the brothers free leave to carry out their plan by any means they chose, promising if they sent him word at any time that they were ready for the assault, he would either come himself or send a picked band of veterans to their aid; and saying that Gaston was to look upon himself as Lord of Saut, by mandate from the English King, who would enforce his right by his royal power if any usurping noble dared to dispute it with him.

Thus fortified by royal warrant, and with a heart beating high with hope and love, Gaston set out with some two score soldiers as a bodyguard to reconnoitre the land; and upon the evening of the second day, the brothers saw, in the fast-fading light of the winter’s day, the red roofs of the old mill lying peacefully in the gathering shadows of the early night.

Their men had been dismissed to find quarters in the village for themselves, and Roger was their only attendant, as they drew rein before the door of the mill, and saw the miller coming quickly round the angle of the house to inquire what these strangers wanted there at such an hour.