"Come!" spoke Philippe de Ferrier. "No jokes with us, Bellenger. Honest men of every degree should stand together in these times."
Eagle sat down on a flat gravestone, and looked at the boy who seemed to be an object of dispute between the men of her family and the other man. He neither saw nor heard what passed. She said to herself—
"It would make no difference to me! It is the same, whether he is the king or not."
Bellenger's eyes half closed their lids as if for protection from the sun.
"Monsieur de Ferrier may rest assured that I am not at present occupied with jokes. I will again ask permission to take my charge away."
"You may not go until you have answered some questions."
"That I will do as far as I am permitted."
"Do Monsieur and his brother know that the king is here?" inquired the elder De Ferrier, taking the lead.
"What reason have you to believe," responded Bellenger, "that the Count de Provence and the Count d'Artois have any interest in this boy?"
Philippe laughed, and kicked the turf.