“Then I must appoint Thibault. He may have an easier conscience, but I had thought that bloodshed, if nothing else, had bound us together.”
“Nay, it shall not be said that I forsook my lord in his need. If thou fallest in the coming battle, I will sacrifice the three to thy ghost.”
“So shall I rest in peace, like the warriors of old time, over whose tomb they slew many victims and cut many throats. I believe in no creed, but the old one of our ancestors suits me best, and I hope I shall find my way to Valhalla, if Valhalla there be.”
When the last stragglers of the royal army had been swallowed up in the recesses of the forest, Marboeuf began to ponder over his engagement. But presently up came the janitor of the dungeons.
“Hast thou the key of the friar’s dungeon?”
“Nay. The young lord has not left it with me.”
The men looked at each other.
“He locked it himself, this morning, and put the key into his gypsire.”
“And he has gone off with it. Doubtless he will send it back directly he finds it there.”
“I doubt it.”