"Ay."

"And she?"

"Nay, I know not."

"She is a good maid?"

"There never lived a sweeter."

"Ha, so, fair son. The Virgin guard her. Now, do you finish your tale."

Sir James sat speechless until Hugh came to the account of the scene in the torture-chamber and Comnenus's question about the Treasure of the Bucoleon.

"And then?" he pressed.

"He would not believe me when I told him I knew not even what it was."

"And you did not?"