"We wot well that you mean only that which is good and worthy by what you have said, Holy Abbot," he declared. "But we have made a bargain to help the Venetians, so that they may help us to go to the aid of Christ's Sepulchre. That is all. If the host accomplishes its purpose, what matter is it that we subdue a city that has rebelled against its rightful lord?"
"Ay, if ye go in sooth to the Holy Land!" flashed the Abbot. "Think well of what ye do, fair sirs! Satan's hands are reaching out to cling to the heels of those of ye who do his bidding."
"What is this that ye say now?" exclaimed Count Baldwin. "If we go, in sooth, to the Holy Land! Know, Holy Sir, that everything we do is aimed to the one end: the greater glory of Christ and the fuller recovery of His country."
The matter ended there in the defeat of the opposition, and the siege was begun. As a military operation it served mainly to train the green men-at-arms. Within five days the hail of stones cast by the engines and the threat of assault by land and sea reduced the inhabitants of Zara to despair. They surrendered on condition that their lives and homes be spared. In return the town was to shelter the Crusaders during the approaching winter, the immanence of which forbade the departure of the expedition on the next stage of the long voyage to Outremer.
To Hugh and Matteo these were dull days, although Ralph covered himself with glory by his feats with the longbow in clearing the walls. Afterwards they settled down to the routine of winter quarters, broken occasionally by tumultuous riots between the Venetian seamen and the Frankish soldiers. For the rest, they rode and hunted in the neighbouring country and practised at arms. In the evenings they joined some body of knights around a fire, and shared in the mirth as the wine-cups went from hand to hand and Matteo strummed his gittern whilst he narrated romaunts and gests—or perhaps some other jongleur bore the burden of entertainment.
It was a care-free life and pleasant, such as was found at any popular court save for the scarcity of high-born ladies. Helena Comnena had few rivals and the younger knights made much of her. Many a lance was broken over her favours in the improvised lists which were erected under the city walls. For Hugh she had ever a mocking smile or gibe, but little else—never a word of the confidences she had been wont to bring to him. Once only, as he rode in the fields, with a falcon he had borrowed from a Flemish knight, he heard the thud of galloping hoofs behind him, and Helena drew rein at his side.
"You thought you would never see me again," she challenged him. "But I knew better."
"How so, Lady?" he asked, surprised.
"I know many things," she returned evasively. "For one thing, I know why you come to be here at Zara—and mayhap, too, I know why Constantinople lures you so."
Hugh flushed.