d had in bringing me to
this.

That she loved me I was assured, and I swore that if I lived I would
win her yet, in spite of every obstacle that I myself had raised for my
undoing.

CHAPTER XII. THE TRIBUNAL OF TOULOUSE

I had hoped to lie some days in prison before being brought to
trial, and that during those days Castelroux might have succeeded in
discovering those who could witness to my identity. Conceive, therefore,
something of my dismay when on the morrow I was summoned an hour before
noon to go present myself to my judges.

From the prison to the Palace I was taken in chains like any thief--for
the law demanded this indignity to be borne by one charged with the
crimes they imputed to me. The distance was but short, yet I found it
over-long, which is not wonderful considering that the people stopped
to line up as I went by and to cast upon me a shower of opprobrious
derision--for Toulouse was a very faithful and loyal city. It was within
some two hundred yards of the Palace steps that I suddenly beheld a face
in the crowd, at the sight of which I stood still in my amazement. This
earned me a stab in the back from the butt-end of the pike of one of my
guards.

"What ails you now?" quoth the man irritably. "Forward, Monsieur le
traite!"

I moved on, scarce remarking the fellow's roughness; my eyes were
still upon that face--the white, piteous face of Roxalanne. I smiled
reassurance and encouragement, but even as I smiled the horror in her
countenance seemed to increase. Then, as I passed on, she vanished from
my sight, and I was left to conjecture the motives that had occasioned
her return to Toulouse. Had the message that Marsac would yesterday have
conveyed to her caused her to retrace her steps that she might be near
me in my extremity; or had some weightier reason influenced her return?
Did she hope to undo some of the evil she had done? Alas, poor child! If
such were her hopes, I sorely feared me they would prove very idle.

Of my trial I should say but little did not the exigencies of my story
render it necessary to say much. Even now, across the gap of years, my
gorge rises at the mockery which, in the King's name, those gentlemen
made of justice. I can allow for the troubled conditions of the times,
and I can realize how in cases of civil disturbances and rebellion
it may be expedient to deal summarily with traitors, yet not all the
allowances that I can think of would suffice to condone t