But Malise, not being a knight, took it only and settled it upon his great grizzled head, where it rested for a moment, lightly as upon some grey and ancient tower lies a flake of snow before it melts.
"I thank you for your overmuch courtesy," the girl said, casting her eyes on the ground with a new-born shyness most like that of a modest maid; "I thank you, indeed.

You do me honour far above my desert.
Still, after all, we work for one end.

You have, it is true, the nobler motive,--the lives of those you love; but I the deadlier,--the death of one I hate! Hearken!" She paused as if to gather strength for that which she had to reveal, and then, reaching her hands out, she motioned the three men to gather more closely about her, as if the blue Atlantic waves or the red boles of the pine trees might carry the matter.
"Listen," she said, "the end comes fast--faster than any know, save I, to whom for my sins the gift of second sight hath been given.

I who speak to you am of Brittany and of the House of De Thouars.

To one of us in each generation descends this abhorred gift of second sight.