Basil answered with a smirk that fees and legal affairs were
inseparable; the latter naturally involved the former. Not that he cared
for money, he remarked, especially in this time of general woe. Still,
it would never do for a lawyer, however humble, to create a precedent
which might be used against his craft in better days. Then he named a
sum.
Hugh handed him double what he asked, whereon he began to manifest great
zeal in his case. Indeed, he accompanied them to the fortified house
that they had named the Bride's Tower, which he alleged, with or without
truth, he had never seen before. There he wrote down all particulars of
the suit.
"Sir Edmund Acour, Count de Noyon, Seigneur of Cattrina?" he said
presently. "Why I think that a lord of those names had audience with his
Holiness some while ago, just before the pest grew bad in Avignon and
the gates of the palace were ordered to be shut. I know not what passed
on the occasion, not having been retained in the cause, but I will find
out and tell you to-morrow."
"Find out also, if it pleases you, learned Basil," said Hugh, "whether
or no this knight with the three names is still in Avignon. If so, I
have a word or two to say to him."
"I will, I will," answered the lantern-jawed notary. "Yet I think it
most unlikely that any one who can buy or beg a horse to ride away on
should stay in this old city just now, unless indeed, the laws of his
order bind him to do so that he may minister to the afflicted.
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