"Why did you not abide at Kernsberg as you were instructed?" put in Hugo at this point.
"Never mind—go on—tell the tale!" cried Helene, who was listening breathlessly.
"We thought it our duty to accompany the Duchess Joan," said Boris, deftly enough; "where the king is, there is the court!"
And at this point the two captains saluted very dutifully and respectfully, like machines moved by one spring.
"Well said for once, thou overly long one," growled Jorian under his breath.
"Go on!" commanded Helene.
"The young man's mother came near and threw a cloak across his naked body. Then Jorian and I unbound him and chafed his limbs, first removing the gag from his mouth; but so tightly had the cords been bound about him that for long he could not stand upright. Then, from the royal pavilion, where she had been brought for cruel sport to see the death, the Princess Margaret came running——"
"Oh, wickedness!" cried Helene, "to make her look on at her lover's death!"
"She came furiously, though a dainty princess, thrusting strong men aside. 'Way there!' she cried, 'on your lives make way! I will go to him. I am the Princess Margaret. Give me a dagger and I will prick me a way.'"
"And, by Saint Stephen the holy martyr—if she did not snatch a bodkin from the belt of a tailor in the High Street and with it open up her way as featly as though she were handling a Cossack lance."