“Death to thy soul!” he cried; “’tis thou that liest, Charles! Did I not see thee stretched on the bloody plain? did I not sink beside thee, hewed down and trampled under foot, in striving to preserve thee? And when my vassals found me, wert thou not beside me--with thy face scarred, indeed, and mangled beyond recognition--but with the surcoat and the arms upon the lifeless corpse, and the sword in the cold hand? ’Tis thou that liest, man!--’tis thou that, for some base end, didst conceal thy life, and now wouldst charge thy felonies on me; but ’twill not do, fair cousin! The king shall judge between us! Come, lady”--and he would have taken her by the hand, but she sprang back as though a viper would have stung her. “Back, traitor!” she exclaimed, in tones of the deepest loathing; “I hate thee--spit on thee--defy thee! Base have I been myself, and frail, and fickle; but, as I live, Charles de La-Hirè--but as I live now, and will die right shortly--I knew not of this villany! I did believe thee dead, as that false murtherer swore--and--God be good to me!--I did betray thee dead; and now have lost thee living! But for thee, Armand de Laguy--dog! traitor! villain! knave!--dare not to look upon me any more; dare not address me with one accent of thy serpent-tongue! for Marguerite de Vaudreuil, fallen although she be, and lost for ever, is not so all abandoned as, knowing thee for what thou art, to bear with thee one second longer--no! not though that second could redeem all the past, and wipe out all the sin--” “Fine words, fine words, fair mistress! but on with me thou shalt!”--and he stretched out his arm to seize her, when, with a perfect majesty, Charles de La-Hirè stepped in and grasped him by the wrist, and held him for a moment there, gazing into his eye as though he would have read his soul; then threw him off with a force that made him stagger back ten paces before he could regain his footing. Then, then, with all the fury of the fiend depicted on his working lineaments, Armand unsheathed his rapier and made a full longe, bounding forward as he did so, right at his cousin’s heart; but he was foiled again--for with a single, and, as it seemed, slight motion of the sheathed broadsword which he held under his cloak, Charles de La-Hirè struck up the weapon, and sent it whirling through the air to twenty paces’ distance. Just then there came a shout, “The king! the king!”--and, with the words, a glare of many torches, and with his courtiers and his guard about him, the monarch stood forth in offended majesty. “Ha! what means this insolent broil? What men be these who dare draw swords within the palace precincts?”