But if so be that I may have a name, and be called gentle,
then, sir, I pray you, beg of our sovereign in England that I may be
called by a new name of my own, that my ill birth may be forgotten."
"And so I will," said Gilbert, "for it is better thus."
Afterwards he kept his word, and when she had her own again, Beatrix
gave him a third share of her broad lands, to hold in fief to Gilbert
Warde, though he had no rightful claim; and because he had saved her
life, he was called Dunstan Le Sauveur, because he had saved her and
many; and he had favour of King Henry and fought bravely, and was made
a knight, and raised up an honourable race.
But on that morning in Jerusalem, in the little court, Beatrix came
out, still weak and weary, and sat beside Gilbert in the shade of the
wall, with her hand between his, and the light in her face.
"Gilbert," she said, when she had told him what had happened to her
until then, "when I was angry and unbelieving in the Queen's chamber in
Antioch, why did you turn and leave me, seeing that I was in the
wrong?"
"I was angry, too," he answered simply.
But womanlike, she answered him again.
"That was foolish. You should have taken me roughly in your arms and
kissed me, as you did by the river long ago. Then I should have
believed you, as I do now."
"But you would not believe my words, nor the Queen's," he said, "nor
even when she gave herself up to the King, to prove herself true, would
you believe her."
"If men only knew!" Beatrix laughed softly her little bird laugh that
had the music of a spring day.
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