"What said he?" asked Eleanor, bending her brows. "Speak out!"
"May it please your Grace, the gentleman said that it was his father's shield."
"And that he craved excuse if it were of an old fashion," added the other.
"And that he would not sell it," concluded the one who was the bolder of the two.
Then he shrank back, and his companion too, and they seemed trying to get behind each other; for the Queen's eyes flashed wrath, and her beautiful lips parted a little over her gleaming teeth, that were tightly closed. But in an instant she was calm again, and she took money from her wallet and gave each page a piece of gold, and spoke quietly.
"You are brave boys to give me such a message," she said. "But if I chance to find out that you have changed it on the way, you shall each have as many blows as there are French deniers in a Greek bezant—and I doubt whether any one knows how many there may be."
"We speak truth, Madam," said the two, in a breath, "and we humbly thank your Grace."
She sent them away, and sat looking at the shield at her feet, while
Anne of Auch waited in silence.
Eleanor's eyes burned in her head, and her hands were cold, and would have shaken a little if she had not held them tightly clasped together.
"It was unknightly of him to say that," she cried at last, as if it hurt her.