Page 248 - A Knight of the White Cross

The next day Gervaise went to the palace of the Countess Da Forli. She was
a widow with no children, except Claudia, the young daughter who had

accompanied her to the fete the evening before. Caretto, and four or five
relations of the family, were the only guests beside himself. It was a quiet

and sociable meal, and served with less ceremony than usual, as the
countess wished to place Gervaise as much as possible at his ease. During
the meal but little was said about the affair with the pirates, Caretto telling

them some of his experiences as a captive.

"It is well, Claudia," he said, laughing, "that you did not see me at the time
I was rescued, for I was such a scarecrow that you would never have been
able to regard me with due and proper respect afterwards. I was so thin that

my bones almost came through my skin."

"You are thin enough now, cousin," the girl said.

"I have gained so much weight during the last ten days that I begin to fear

that I shall, ere long, get too fat to buckle on my armour. But, bad as the
thinness was, it was nothing to the dirt. Moreover, I was coming near to

losing my voice. There was nothing for us to talk about in our misery, and
often days passed without a word being exchanged between Da Vinci,
Forzi, and myself. Do you know I felt almost more thankful for the bath

and perfumes than I did for my liberty. I was able at once to enjoy the
comfort of the one, while it was some time before I could really assure

myself that my slavery was over, and that I was a free man again."

"And now, Sir Gervaise," the countess said, when the meal was over, "it is

your turn. Claudia is longing to hear your story, and to know how you came
to be in command of a galley."

"And I am almost as anxious," Caretto said. "I did not like to ask the
question on board the galley, and have been looking forward to learning it

when I got to Rhodes. I did, indeed, ask the two knights who accompanied
me on my mission here, but they would only tell me that every one knew

you had performed some very great service to the Order, and that it
concerned some intended rising among the slaves, the details being known