On the other hand, if I am put away by my lord the King that he may make a good marriage, I shall be claimed again by the man to whom I was betrothed before, and so the doom be in danger of fulfilment.

For, look now, Madame, the leper said, "Wife of a dead man and his killer"; and there is none so sure to kill the King as Sir Gilles de Gurdun.

Alas, alas, Madame, to what a strait am I come, who sought no one's hurt! I have considered night and day what it were best to do since the King, at my prayer, left me; and now my judgment is this.

I must be with the King, though not the King's _mie_; because so surely as he sends me away, so surely will Gilles de Gurdun have me.' She stopped, out of breath, feeling some shame to have spoken so much.
The Queen-Mother came to her at once, with her hands out.

'By my soul, Jehane,' she said, 'you are a good woman.