" Well do I believe they lie," said Amelot ; " but this hinders
not their falsehoods from being believed by those who know him
less inwardly. More than one runaway from our troop have joined
this rabblement, and that gives some credit to the scandal. And
then they say — they say — that — in short, that my master longs to
possess the lands in his proper right which he occupies as his
uncle's administrator ; and that if the old Constable — I crave your
pardon, madam — should return from Palestine, he should find it
difficult to obtain possession of his own again."

" The sordid wretches judge of others by their own base minds,
and conceive those temptations too powerful for men of worth,
which they are themselves conscious they would be unable to
resist. But are the insurgents then so insolent and so powerful ?
We have heard of their violences, but only as if it had been some
popular tumult."

"We had notice last night that they have drawn together in



THE BETROTHED. 233

great force, and besieged or blockaded Wild Wenlock, with his
men-at-arms, in a village about ten miles hence. He hath sent to
my master, as his kinsman and companion-at-arms, to come to his
assistance. We were on horseback this morning to march to the
rescue — when"

He paused, and seemed unwilling to proceed. Eveline caught
at the word. " When you heard of my danger ? " she said. " I
would ye had rather heard of my death ! "

" Surely, noble lady," said the page, with his eyes fixed on the
ground, " nothing but so strong a cause could have made my
master halt his troop, and carry the better part of them to the
Welsh mountains, when his countryman's distress, and the com-
mands of the King's Lieutenant, so peremptorily demanded his
presence elsewhere."

" I knew it," she said — " I knew I was born to be his destruc-
tion ! yet methinks this is worse than I dreamed of, when the
worst was in my thoughts. I feared to occasion his death, not his
loss of fame. 