The question was--how could it be done? I might enter the service of
the King and fight his battles and doubtless win myself a knighthood, or
more, which would open the closed gate.
Nay, it would take too long, and something warned me that time pressed.
That strange foreign man, Kari, said that Blanche was enamoured of this
Deleroy, and although I was wrath with him, setting his words down to
jealousy of any on whom I looked with kindness, I knew well that Kari
saw far. If I tarried, this rare white bird would slip from my hand into
another's cage. I must stir at once or let the matter be. Well, I had
wealth, so let wealth be my friend. Time enough to try war when it
failed me.
On the third day of the new year, which at this time of Court revelry
showed that the matter must indeed be pressing, I received those
particulars for which I had asked, together with a list of the lands and
tenements that Sir Robert Aleys was ready to put in pawn on behalf of
his friend and relative, the lord Deleroy. Why should he do this, I
wondered? There could only be one answer: because he and not Deleroy was
to receive the money, or most of it.
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