She half turned as she saw me, and it gave me a little pang, as it were, to see her draw her dress aside that it might by no means touch me, no doubt with the same fear of fever that had been in the mind of my friend at the first.  But then she stayed and looked at me and at Evan, who was yet cringing in some Welsh way of respect as she passed.  Her companions stopped on the gangplank, and they were silent.

“Why is this sick man on the ship,” she said to my captor, with some little touch of haughtiness.  “And why is he swathed thus?  What is wrong with him?”

Evan bowed again, and at once began his tale as he had told it to Thorgils.  But he did not say that I came from near Pembroke at all.  Now he named some other place whose name began with “Llan—­” as my home.

“The good shipmaster has suffered me to take him home, Lady, subject to your consent,” he ended.  “I pray you let it be so.”

Now the eyes of the princess had grown soft as she heard the tale, and when Evan ended it there was pity in her voice as she answered.

“Surely he may come, and if there is no fitting place for him he shall even have the cabin to himself.  I can be well content in these warm things of mine on deck in this calm air, and he must have all shelter.”

“Nay, Lady, but there is the fore cabin, where he will be well bestowed,” Evan said hastily, beckoning at the same time to his comrades that they might take me from this too unsafe place at once.

He kept himself between me and her as much as he could all this time, and I made no sign.  It seemed to me that I could not, even in my trouble, bring more pain to this soft-eyed princess by raising the groan which was all that I could compass.  What good would it do?  I could tell her nothing, and she could not dream of the true reason that made me try to cry out.  Maybe she would listen through all the long hours to come to hear if the poor wretch she felt for was yet in that dire pain that made him moan so terribly.

“Is he well bandaged?” she said, then.  “It is ill if broken bones are not closely set and splinted, and the ship will plunge and rock presently.”

Evan assured her with many words that all was well done, and yet she lingered.

“I must see him well and softly bestowed in his place,” she said, half laughing, and turning to some who stood yet beyond my range of sight.  “Else I shall have no peace at all till we come to land again.”

Evan turned to me at that saying, to hide his face.  He was growing ashy pale, and the sweat was breaking out on his forehead.  And that made me glad to see, for he was being punished.  Even yet the princess might wish to see that my swathings were comfortable, and if I once had my mouth freed for a moment all was lost to him.

He signed to his comrades to lift me carefully, and then put a bold face on the matter, and thanked the princess for her kindness.