The Five Marks

SEVERAL of the men were casting hazard dice near up the throne upon a table made for it. Loud and brazen were they even now. Imogene picked out each man by colors and by countenance, and told her squire of each one so she could take the size of them.

“First there, that be Abréhan d’Bayeux, he of hissing, raspy voice possesseth’d. Always doth he make a pretty shew of wearing fashionable boots.

“And next to him be Théodore d’Etretat, along the Alabaster Coast. You can be sure to know him by his barbe longue et grasse. A cur, that fellow be. However, mark this: need ye have your fortune read, he knows a Jew in quarter there who keeps an accurate astrology.”

“Quite good to know,” responded Nesta, she.

“The third man ere along is Francis Peter, he an Englishman from Kent. He excellent at falconry, and never took a wife to him.” Nesta saw he had a small and slightly pursèd mouth.

“Upon the other side, you see the two with backs to us? These two men with the blazons, each marked by two crossèd keys? The first one named he Cllémentin d’Lisieux, of he, that sleepy little thorp, who makes up life-like wooden carvings, and makes gifts of them for Christmastime. The second man is called Jean-Hippolyte d’Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, where Benedictine monks built up a market hall. It small, but be it très cosmopolite.”

“We’ll have to visit for a shops someday!”

“Now Nesta, tell it back to me whacht I just said.”

And she said, without she taking off her eyes of them, “Abréhan, he suffers from a lack of chest, and need he others’ blandishment for him feel his best; Théodore, he hides him his low breeding from the host, so but a wee reminder keep his psyche laying flat; Francis Peter, foreigner, unlike the other men, and quite susceptible to slander were he eft; Clémentin, like child doth he be inside, and can he be admonished down to subjugate his pride; and finally upon the end Jean-Hippolyte, dependeth on the charity of churchmen like my Pa.”

Imogene’s sweet lips aparted and then closed again. “Quite so!” Was all she mustered up. And in a moment, Nesta garnered good advantage over five of William’s men.