The silence lengthened; in the dim light of the walk noiselessly the girl drew nearer; unseen, reached the old abbot's great granite chair with its sheltering back to the court and close to the Governor's table. Into the capacious depths of this chilly throne, where once the high and holy dignitary of the church had been accustomed to recline while brethren laved his feet from the tiny stone lavatorium before it, she half sank, her cheek against one of its cold sides; in an attitude of expectation breathlessly waited. Why was it so still? Why did not her father speak? She could hear his pen scratch, scratch! They were again speaking; more eagerly she bent forward; listened to the hard, metallic voice of the Governor. "You left the castle at once when the decree of the court, ordering it vacated, was posted in the forest?" "My master told me to, pretending he was going, but--" "Remained to resist; to kill." The Governor's tones, without being raised, were sharper. "And when, after the crime against these instruments of justice, he escaped to the high seas, why did you not go with him?" "He wouldn't have it." "Thinking you would be more useful here? A spy?" "He said he would be held an outlaw; a price put on him, and--he dismissed me from his service." "Dismissed you? An excellent jest! But," with sudden incisiveness, "what about the priest, eh? What about the priest?" The man straightened. "What priest?" he said in a dogged tone. "You are accused of harboring and abetting an unfrocked fellow who has long been wanted by the government, a scamp of revolutionary tendencies; you are accused of having taken him to sea," the prisoner started, "to some rendezvous--a distant isle--to meet some one; to wait for a ship; to be smuggled away--?" The man did not reply; with head sunk slightly, seemed lost in thought. "Speak--answer!" "Who accuses me?" From the stone chair the girl sprang; looked out. Her face white, excited, peering beneath the delicate spandrils and stone roses, seemed to come as an answer. "Have I not told you--" began the Governor sternly, when-- "Bah!" burst from the prisoner violently. "Why should I deny what your Excellency so well knows? I told my master not to trust her; that she would play him false; and that once out of his hands--" "Her? Whom do you mean?" The Governor's eyes followed the man's; stopped. "Elise!" "I think," her eyes very bright, the girl walked quickly toward them, "I think this man means me." "Elise!" the Governor repeated. "Forgive me, _mon père_; I didn't intend to listen, but I couldn't help it--because--" "How long," said the Governor, "have you been there?" "Ever since--he came in. I suppose," proudly turning to the man, "it is useless to say that I did not play this double rôle of which you accuse me, and that I did keep, in every particular, the promise I made--" "Oh, yes; you could say it, my Lady!" with sneering emphasis.