"When you next go to Flanders may I come too?" he whispered.
"Why, this is peace, Highness," smiled William.
"But there will be war again, will there not, sir?"
"God forbid," answered the King solemnly, "for we have utterly disarmed ourselves."
Seeing him so suddenly grave the Duke was silent, and the old look of wonder and question came back into his eyes.
William turned to him again.
"But you will be a great soldier yet; remember me in your first battle, Highness."
The child fondled the King's star, and William, with exquisite tenderness, lifted his long smooth curls of auburn hair, and passed them round his fingers.
"Stewart locks," he murmured, and his voice trembled with the thought of what had been, what might have been, and what could now never be; and another ringlet of this hued hair that lay hidden in his bosom seemed to turn into a dagger that pierced into his heart.
With a great effort he put the child from him and rose.