Lest some unforeseen chance should prevent the accomplishment of ourmeeting, My Lord Earl, I send thee this by one whom knoweth not either itscontents or the suspicions which I will narrate herein.

He who bareth this letter, I truly believe to be the lost Prince Richard.Question him closely, My Lord, and I know that thou wilt be as positive asI.

0f his past, thou know nearly as much as I, though thou may not know thewondrous chivalry and truthful nobility of character of him men call ---

Here the letter stopped, evidently cut short by the dagger of the assassin.

"Mon Dieu ! The damnable luck !" cried De Montfort, "but a second more andthe name we have sought for twenty months would have been writ. Didst eversee such hellish chance as plays into the hand of the fiend incarnate sincethat long gone day when his sword pierced the heart of Lady Maud by thepostern gate beside the Thames ? The Devil himself must watch o'er him.

"There be naught more we can do here," he continued. "I should have beenon my way to Fletching hours since. Come, my gentlemen, we will ride southby way of Leicester and have the good Fathers there look to the decentburial of this holy man."

The party mounted and rode rapidly away. Noon found them at Leicester, andthree days later, they rode into the baronial camp at Fletching.

At almost the same hour, the monks of the Abbey of Leicester performed thelast rites of Holy Church for the peace of the soul of Father Claude andconsigned his clay to the churchyard.