f
denials would be unavailing to win so much as a glance of sympathy. He
had essayed a game with Destiny; he had lost and must pay penalty--and
he never doubted what that penalty would be with Richard Plantagenet
his judge. But at least, he would wring a cry of pain from the heart
of his enemy--and he smiled and waited.

Then the King spoke: "We will hear you now, Lord Darby."

"I thank Your Gracious Majesty for the stern impartialness of this
trial," he said with biting sarcasm. "It was planned as skillfully as
was a certain other in the White Tower, adown the Thames, when Hastings
was the victim"--and he gave his sneering laugh; and then repeated it,
as he remarked the shudder it brought to the Countess. "Nathless I am
not whimpering. I have been rash; and rashness is justified only by
success. For I did abduct the Countess of Clare, and have her carried
to my Castle of Roxford. So much is truth." Then he faced Sir Aymer
de Lacy and went on with a malevolent smile. "But she was not a
prisoner there, nor did I take her against her wish. She went by
prearrangement, and remained with me of her own free will. I thought
she loved me, and believed her protestations of loathing for the
upstart De Lacy who, she said, was pursuing her with his suit, And when
she begged me to take her with me and risk your Majesty's anger, I
yielded; and to the end that we might wed, I did embark, in the
plottings of the Duke of Buckingham, upon his engagement, for the Tudor
Henry, that our union would be sanctioned. Later, when the lady seemed
so happy with me at Roxford, methought the marriage could bide a bit,
and so resolved to wait until the battle to choose between Plantagenet
and Tudor. Having the girl, I could then get the estates as payment of
my service to the victor. But it would seem I risked too much upon the
lady's love. For while I was at the wars, either she tired of me and
so deserted Roxford, or having been found there by De Bury and the
Frenchman, as she says, she deemed it wise to play the innocent and
wronged maiden held in durance by her foul abductor. Leastwise, whoso
desires her now is welcome to her," and he laughed again.

Then could De Lacy endure it no longer; and casting off De Bury's
restraining arm, he flashed forth his dagger and sprang toward Darby.
But as he leaped Sir Richard Ratcliffe caught him round the neck and
held him for the space that was needful for him to gather back his wits.

"