A noise called me to myself. Fearful, I raised my head. The door to the right into the other room was open. A man stood in fair view under the arch of it. It was Sir Hugh Richmond. "My God!" he exclaimed. "Lady Katharine, is it you? What do you here?" "I am a prisoner," I faltered, "a prisoner for life." He came closer to me. "But you are free, sir." "What mean you?" "I rode south to King James. His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to pardon you,"--was there indication of my feelings in the fact that I put Sir Hugh first?--"you and my father," I said. "But me he hath condemned to imprisonment for life." "The dog!" cried the soldier. "I renounce his allegiance. The cruel, brutal tyrant! And I have fought for him. Madam, I will not have it so. I will go to him myself and wrest from him your pardon." "You cannot," I cried; "by the terms of your release, if you are found in Scotland within four days thereafter, you are to be killed as an outlaw without recourse." "And if I were to be shot the next moment, I would still force my way into his presence if for naught but to tell him what I thought of him. What is life, what is freedom for me without you? I might not tell you before when I had rendered you some slight service, but now when there is much to do for you, I can declare that I love you, and you only, and that without you life, liberty are nothing." "Is this," said I, "one of those protestations which spring fortnightly from your lips?" "Madam, it springs eternally from my heart. I am ashamed of my foolish words." "And your ideal woman?" I persisted. "Lady Katharine," said the man, "I never thought to see her, to look upon her as I do now. I never thought..." He came closer to me; he caught me in his arms. Was I too tired or disinclined to struggle, I wonder? At any rate, he was not to be denied in his purpose. "I never thought," he went on, "thus to hold her in my arms. I never expected thus to kiss her lips." He suited his action to his words. And I--what was the matter with me?--I resisted not; I lay there trembling, thrilling--his own! "I am a prisoner," I said at last when he gave me breath and space to talk, although still he held me close, and still my arms clung about his neck. "I can be nothing to you except...." "I would tear down the castle stone by stone, hurl the King from his throne itself, but I would have you now," said my soldier. Neither of us had noticed that the door at the back of the room had opened. It was Sir Alexander Forfair's dry and caustic voice which broke upon our passion. "Still talking treason, Sir Hugh?" he said, shaking his finger. "But we will overlook it this time. We have not heard a word. Hey, General Ramesay?" "I am as deaf as the walls, your lordship," replied the soldier.