"
"'Tis my purpose to depart, Sir John. This clime is too bright, and its
beams too fervid, for a lady's eye."
"One word in sober speech:--Wherefore?"
"I know your question, Sir John. Time hastens, and I reply. Your knight
of the silver mantle I proclaim a recreant, as treacherous as he is
base. Sir John, for my--no, for your own sake"----
"Another stole into his place," said he, interrupting her with great
eagerness. "A base-born changeling!--some villain, who, under this
disguise, abused our honourable intent; but say, peerless princess, to
whose prowess we owe your rescue."
"'Tis my first venture into the unhallowed limits of your licentious
court; and through the grace that hath preserved me harmless, I here
resolve it shall be my last. By your instructions, Sir John, I relied
implicitly on the protection of your friend. He would fain have abused
his trust, but I escaped from the offered insult. Struggling to free my
hand from his grasp, by yonder hill-side, I lost my footing. I fell down
the steep unhurt. Fear lent me unwonted strength, and I escaped unseen,
round the narrow pathway. My discourteous knight thought, doubtless, I
had tumbled into the roaring abyss; for the night mist hung below, and I
heard a huge fragment of rock, loosened in my descent, plunge into the
dimly-rolling waters.
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