"Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried.
"Far down the course of time I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the south."
"Ha!" cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph, "you hear her, Sir Nigel?--and she never yet said word which was not sooth."
The English knight shook his head moodily.
"What of my own poor country?" said he.
"I fear, lady, that what you have said bodes but small good for her."
The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and fast.
"My God!" she cried, "what is this that is shown me?
Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these mighty countries which rise up before me?
I look beyond, and others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the uttermost waters.
They crowd! They swarm!
The world is given to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the ringing of their church bells.
They call them many names, and they rule them this way or that but they are all English, for I can hear the voices of the people.
On I go, and onwards over seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land under new stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is England.
Where have her children not gone?
What have they not done?
Her banner is planted on ice.
Her banner is scorched in the sun.
She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the seas.
Bertrand, Bertrand! we are undone for the buds of her bud are even as our choicest flower!"
Her voice rose into a wild cry, and throwing up her arms she sank back white and nerveless into the deep oaken chair.
"It is over," said Du Guesclin moodily, as he raised her drooping head with his strong brown hand.
"Wine for the lady, squire!
The blessed hour of sight hath passed."
Chapter XXX.
HOW THE BRUSHWOOD MEN CAME TO THE CHATEAU OF VILLEFRANCHE.
IT was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel the goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after the curling of his hair, was able at last to seek his chamber.
It was a stone-flagged room upon the second floor, with a bed in a recess for him, and two smaller pallets on the other side, on which Aylward and Hordle John were already snoring.
Alleyne had knelt down to his evening orisons, when there came a tap at his door, and Ford entered with a small lamp in his hand.
His face was deadly pale, and his hand shook until the shadows flickered up and down the wall.
"What is it, Ford?" cried Alleyne, springing to his feet.
"I can scarce tell you, said he, sitting down on the side of the couch, and resting his chin upon his hand. "I know not what to say or what to think."
"Has aught befallen you, then?"
"Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy.
I tell you, lad, that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string.
Hark hither, Alleyne! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux?"
"I remember her well."
"She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger.
'Caro mio,' quoth she when last we parted, 'I shall be near thee in the wars, and thy danger will be my danger.'
Alleyne, as God is my help, as I came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before me, her face in tears, her hands out as though in warning--I saw it, Alleyne, even as I see those two archers upon their couches.
Our very finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned away like a mist in the sunshine."
"I would not give overmuch thought to it," answered Alleyne.
"Our minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that these words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought upon us and shaken us."
Ford shook his head.
"I saw little Tita as clearly as though I were back at the Rue des Apotres at Bordeaux," said he.
"But the hour is late, and I must go."
"Where do you sleep, then?"
"In the chamber above you.
May the saints be with us all!"
He rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair.