“Well, if your highness will have it,” blurted out the yeoman, in sheer desperation, “I thought, as did others beside me (may God forgive us if we were wrong!), that Sir Simon, being next heir to the broad lands of Claremont, had bred a quarrel ’twixt his nephews, hoping that if they slew each other, lands and goods should be his without more ado.”
A gloomy silence followed the utterance of this ghastly suspicion, broken at last by the Black Prince himself.
“Be not troubled, good fellow,” said he, laying his hand kindly on the other’s shoulder. “Thou hast spoken what thou holdest to be the truth, as every man is bound to do; and if thou art mistaken, why, so might any man be in like case. But what befell next?”
“We caught the rogue Flanderkin and brought him back with us, as we were bidden; and then, knowing no better counsel, it seemed best to our esquire that while he mustered the men as they came back from their scouting, I should hie me to the town and tell what had chanced.”
“Thou hast done well, and thy service shall not be forgotten. Go now and rest thee, for thou must have need of it. Take this from me, and let what thou hast said be a secret betwixt us.”
The archer was hardly gone, when a messenger came to report the return of the Claremont men-at-arms from their patrol under their oldest esquire, who had taken the command in default of his three superior officers.
Prince Edward at once summoned the esquire to his presence, but only to learn fresh details that made the dark story gloomier than ever.
Sir Simon had never come back from seeking his lost nephew. Nothing had since been heard either of him or the wretched fratricide; and when the men returned to the spot where the slain Sir Hugo’s corpse had been left, there was no sign of it but a red stain on the cold, grey sand, whence a trail of dark drops led down to the water’s edge, showing but too plainly that the pirate crew in the offing must have landed on seeing the coast clear, stripped the dead man of his rich armour, and then flung him into the sea!
“An ill end for so young and brave a knight!” said the Black Prince, with a sigh. “May God rest his soul, and have mercy on him who slew him!”