vise; but I have been spared for this!" Her lips
quivered. Shuddering, she spoke with amazing energy and distinctness. "I
_have_ repented, day and night, but they were unavailing tears. Oh, if I
have wronged thee"--she covered her face with her hands--"it was not
even in thought that I grew unfaithful to thy trust. My babes, in a
moment of weakness I looked on them, smiling as they lay. I could not
dash the cup from their lips ere they had well nigh tasted. I could not
behold them so soon doomed to misery and want."

She made a convulsive effort to repress her sobs.

"Can years of suffering atone for my crime?"

She drew back as she continued, "I abhor, I loathe the very existence I
am forced to prolong. The cloister alone can hide my wretchedness and my
shame."

"I forgive thee: nay, shrink not from my embrace," cried the distracted
Sir William; "I blame thee not in my regret. Pure, and as free from
guilt as when first I knew thee, do I now receive thee to my arms."

Sir Osmund smiled in contempt; at the same time casting a furtive glance
towards the side entrance, where, true to his word, Roger De Cliderhow
had summoned a guard of Welsh bowmen, their master's accomplices in many
a deed of violence and rapine.

Sir Osmund heard their approach. He cautiously undrew the bolts, and,
pointing to his foe with a signal they but too well understood, the
latter was immediately seized, and with such rapidity, that almost
before Sir William was aware of their design, he found himself a
prisoner and incapable of resistance.

"Traitor, thou wilt rue this foul despite! I here proclaim thee a craven
knight and a dastard!" exclaimed Sir William.

"False pilgrim," growled his adversary, "didst think to foist thy
fooleries upon me! The dungeon walls will give thee a patient hearing.
Boast to them of thy descent, and when they acknowledge thee, so will I.
Guards, to your duty."

Lady Mabel, with a loud and appalling shriek, fell senseless on the
pavement.

In vain did Sir William endeavour to free himself from the rude grasp of
his conductors. He was hurried along, nor did there appear the remotest
possibility of escape. Just as they turned into a sort of corridor,
leading to the passages more immediately connected with the place of
their destination, they encountered Humphry Lathom. The same
half-stupid, half-knavish expression of face was now lighted up by a
grin of apparently inexplicable amazement.

"Eh, nuncle," said