and although the great nobleman was divested of his authority in Gascony,

he suffered little further oppression at the hands of his royal master.

CHAPTER IV

As De Vac drew his sword from the heart of the Lady Maud, he winced, for,

merciless though he was, he had shrunk from this cruel task. Too far he

had gone, however, to back down now, and, had he left the Lady Maud alive,

the whole of the palace guard and all the city of London would have been on

his heels in ten minutes; there would have been no escape.

The little Prince was now so terrified that he could but tremble and

whimper in his fright. So fearful was he of the terrible De Vac that a

threat of death easily stilled his tongue, and so the grim, old man led him

to the boat hidden deep in the dense bushes.

De Vac did not dare remain in this retreat until dark, as he had first

intended. Instead, he drew a dingy, ragged dress from the bundle beneath

the thwart and in this disguised himself as an old woman, drawing a cotton

wimple low over his head and forehead to hide his short hair. Concealing

the child beneath the other articles of clothing, he pushed off from the

bank, and, rowing close to the shore, hastened down the Thames toward the

old dock where, the previous night, he had concealed his skiff. He reached

his destination unnoticed, and, running in beneath the dock, worked the

boat far into the dark recess of the cave-like retreat.

Here he determined to hide until darkness had fallen, for he knew that the

search would be on for the little lost Prince at any moment, and that none

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