Hugh looked up in surprise. The speaker was Comnenus.
Dandolo nodded his head.
"The Cæsar speaks justly," he said. "It might have happened so. Is that all you have to say?"
"Nay, Lord Doge. I have viewed this scroll—" Matteo drew the parchment from Hugh's limp fingers—"and whilst I cannot read it, still I know that 'tis not written as my Lord Hugh writes. Is it not so, Lord Marshal?" he appealed to Villehardouin.
Villehardouin studied the parchment with wrinkled brows.
"Ay," he exclaimed joyfully. "'Tis as Messer Matteo says. Messer Hugh writes in a fair enough hand, but large and round. This is writ small and sharp, so that I can make naught of the letters in it. But mayhap a clerk can testify to better advantage."
Bishop Nevelon of Soissons, the most famous warrior-prelate of the host, came forward and took the parchment.
"Ay," he agreed after a minute's examination, "this is writ in the form used by the clerks of South Europe and the East. It hath a likeness to Greek script, it is so sharp-drawn. But where is a sample of Messer Hugh's writing that we may compare the two?"
"I have a piece with me," said Villehardouin eagerly. "Here. 'Tis notes of a council Messer Hugh writ down for me from my dictation but yestereve."
The Bishop put the two parchments side by side, and instantly he extended them to Boniface.