Soothsayers, more than ordinarily, had left their youth behind them. But this one was yet young, and she had, if you chose to see it, beauty....
Pastourel and Rayneval were tumbling marvellously upon the carpet they had laid. Baudwin Buffoon strutted from corner to corner. One of Rainulf’s men laughed loudly, then another; Baudwin had caught them. Pastourel, planting the stick with which he had beat Jeanne, vaulted high over it. A man-at-arms clapped his hands, watched for the next trick. Maria the dancer began to bend and whirl.
“Soothsayer,” spoke Rainulf, “if two fiefs quarrel, my fief and another fief, shall my fief win? Will we get it done before Christ comes, and will there be time in which I may get absolution if there has been sacrilege committed?”
The soothsayer stood still with folded hands. All light in her face seemed to go inward, and though her eyes did not close they appeared to rest from use in vision. She stood so for a span of time, while the bells yet rang and the cloud passed from overhead so that the market-place lay in sunshine. She spoke in an inward and murmuring voice. “Why do the folk dread the End of the World? That would be a fair sight, to see Christ come!—but have no fear, lord! Long, long, long will it be ere you see Him coming!”
“I will get clear before the End of the World?”
“Yea. The End of the World is not yet.”
Her face became as usual. She sighed, then smiled as was the rule, and made her reverence and cupped her outstretched hand for the piece of money.
Rainulf the Red stooped from the saddle, put the coin in her hand and closed his own over it. “What is your name?”
“Gersonde, lord.”
She went back and sat upon her stone. Rainulf the Red spoke to Black Martin, standing cap in hand. He spoke in a somewhat lowered, but not greatly lowered voice. He was a strong baron, and these were strollers, and it was nothing extraordinary that which he proposed. He drew his horse aside, but not much aside. He looked at the soothsayer in her blue mantle, then bargained with the head of the band. Black Martin pursed his lips, then named a sum. The Baron halved it; they finally agreed upon three fourths of the first amount. Black Martin sold his granddaughter’s body and agreed that it should be found at such an hour in such a place.