“Have you any plan?”
“Listen, Isoult. All the country is stirring, and all the outlawed men are swarming hither. The word is flying from mouth to mouth. Now, we shall come here and break in. This falcon will fight?”
“To the death, or I am no judge of a man’s fettle.”
“Good. We will have him at our mercy, and then you, Isoult, shall step in and beg his life. A close prisoner he shall be, and I doubt not that he may be persuaded.”
“Be not too sure.”
“I am not crossed easily.”
“Merlin, one word: think not that Isoult is without honour.”
He protested with an eager, murmuring voice.
“No, no; it is but a lure to the lad’s spirit. Born out of wedlock, a love child, a king before a king! He is the son of his father’s loins. We’ll challenge him to the adventure.”
“There is the woman, his mother. That is another marvel that one who is now as cold and stiff as a corpse——”