"Then," said Caspar, pulling his rusty sword from under a heap of
faggots, "I will go down and win it from them; for I see my hour
coming at last."
But the Princess said, "Foolish man, it is here! And as for the
golden avenue, that too is here, or all that was ever worth your
winning." And thereupon she drew aside her cloak, shaking the snow
from it; and when the folds parted and the firelight fell on her
bosom, he saw a breastplate gleaming--a single plate of gold--and in
the centre of it the imprint of a horse's hoof.
"So these two, Cavalier--or so the story reached me--lived content in
their silly hut, nor ever thought it worth their while to descend to
the plain and lose what they had found. . . . But you were good
enough just now to inquire concerning my own poor adventures."
"Billy Priske," said I, "has given me some account of them up to your
parting from my father--at Calenzana, was it not?"
"At Calenzana." Mr. Fett sighed assent. "Ah! Cavalier, it has been
a stony road we have travelled from Calenzana. _Infandum jubes
renovare dolorem_ . . . but Badcock must bear the blame.
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