Sing!" Then Laurence stood up and sang, even as the choir had done, the lamentation of Rachel according to the setting of the Roman precentor.
"_A voice was heard in Ramah!_" And as he sang, the Lord of Retz took up the strain, and, with true accord and feeling, accompanied him to the end.
[Illustration: THE PRISONERS OF THE WHITE TOWER.] "Brava!" cried Gilles de Retz when Laurence had finished; "that is truly well sung indeed! You shall sing it alone in my chapel next feast day of the Holy Innocents." He paused as if to consider his words.
"And now for this time go.

But remember that this Castle of Machecoul is straiter than any prison cell, and better guarded than a fortress.
It is surrounded with constant watchers, secret, invisible, implacable.

Whoso tries to escape, dies.

You are a bold lad, and, as I think, fear not much death for yourself.

But come hither, and I will show you something which will chain you here." With a kind of solicitous familiarity the Marshal de Retz took the lad by the arm and drew him to another window on the further side of the keep.
"Look forth and tell me what you see," he said.
Laurence set his head out of the window.