"I, too, would say, 'God rest his soul.' As thou knowest, I scarce saw him here, for he fled to Wales when he heard that the council had determined to attack the castle. But his brother--"
She paused, for even now she could not make the least allusion to William de Breauté without a shudder.
"Tell me all thou hast heard," she added.
"I will give the tale in few words," Ralph answered. "Thou mindest how, after he had submitted himself to our lord the king in Bedford here, he was given, as an enemy of Holy Church, into the safe-keeping of my Lord Eustace, the Bishop of London."
"Ay," put in Aliva. "Some time since, when I went to Elstow to visit Lady Margaret, the reverend mother told me how she had restored the sword into the hands of the figure of St. Paul in the abbey church, as soon as it was told her that the holy apostle had the destroyer of St. Paul's Church safe in the keeping of the Bishop of St. Paul's in London."
"But see here," Ralph went on. "The good father has had writ out for me a copy of the entry of Sir Fulke's history, as recorded by the scribe of the monastery to be laid in the scriptorium. I will e'en read it to thee, if I have not forgot the Latin the old chaplain taught me when I was a boy."
And Ralph read out the following history, which is still preserved to us in the chronicles of St. Alban's:--
"Fulke, after that he was pardoned at London, and because he was marked with the cross, was allowed to depart for Rome. After crossing the sea he applied for a passport at Fiscamp, and was detained by the bailiffs of France. At last, the following Easter, after that he had been released from prison, he went to Rome, and sent very piteous letters to the king, asking that his wife and his lands might be restored to him."
"Alack! The poor Lady Margaret!" put in Aliva, with a sigh.
"Whereupon the king, with his barons," read on Ralph, "sent word to our lord the Pope of the treachery of Fulke; and the latter, having had his refusal, set off for Troyes; and after staying there a year, was sent out of France, because he would not pay homage to the king. He went to Rome, and again, with much entreaty, begged that his wife and his patrimony might be restored to him; and on his return from that city, burdened with debt, he died at St. Cyriac."