For she thought of her brother Roger, who had taken the Cross at that gathering at Cross-in-Hand when labouring under his sire’s dire displeasure, and who had fallen yet more deeply under the ban, owing to events with which our readers are but partially acquainted.

And now, where Roger sat, she saw her own husband—­well beloved—­yet had he not effaced the memory of her brother.  And she longed to see that brother’s son, of whom she had heard, recognised as the heir of Walderne.

The palmer sang, and his song told of one, a father stern, who bade his son wash off the guilt of some grievous sin in the blood of the unbeliever—­how that son went forth, full of zeal—­but went forth to find his efforts blasted by a haunting, malignant fiend he had himself armed with power to blast; how at length, conquering all opposition, he had reached the holy shore, and embarked on every desperate enterprise, until he was laid out for dead, when—­

At this moment the chapel bell rang for the evening prayers, which were never later than curfew, for as men then rose with the sun it was well to go to bed with him, so they all flocked to the chapel.  The office commonly called Compline was said, and the little sanctuary was left again vacant and dark save where the solitary lamp twinkled before the altar.

But the Lady Sybil did not seek her couch.  She remained kneeling in devotion before the altar, which her wealth and piety had founded.  Nor was she alone.  The palmer yet knelt on the floor of the sanctuary.

When they had been left alone together for some minutes, and all was still save the wind which howled without she rose and said: 

“Tell me who thou art, O mysterious man:  thy voice reminds me of one long dead.”

“Dead to the world, yet living in the flesh.  Sybil, I am thy brother Roger, at least what remains of him; thou hast not forgotten me.”

“But why hast thou been silent so long?  Thy brother in arms, the great Earl of Leicester, himself said he saw thee fall fighting gloriously against the fell Paynim.”

“And he spake sooth, but he did not see me rise again.  I was carried off the field for interment by the good brethren of Saint John, when, just as they were about to lower me with the dead warriors into one common grave, they perceived that there was life in me.  They raised me, and restored the spirit which had all but fled, and when at last it returned, reason did not return with it.  For a full year I was bereft of my senses.  They kept me in the hospital at Acre, but they knew nought, and could learn nought of my kindred, until at length I recovered my reason.  Then I told them I was dead to the world, and besought them to keep me, but they bade me wander, and stir up others to the rescue of the Holy Land ere I took my rest.  And then, too, there was my son—­”

“Thy son?”