deemed that her passion of faith in the Maid made war on her love for me;
one breast being scantly great enough to contain these two affections,
and her pride taking, against the natural love, the part of the love
which was divine.

But all these were later thoughts, that came to me in musing on the
sorrows of my days; and, like most wisdom, this knowledge arrived too
late, and I, as then, was holden in perplexity.




CHAPTER VIII--OF CERTAIN QUARRELS THAT CAME ON THE HANDS OF NORMAN LESLIE


Belike I had dropped asleep, outwearied with what had befallen me, mind
and body, but I started up suddenly at the sound of a dagger-hilt smitten
against the main door of the house, and a voice crying, "Open, in the
name of the Dauphin." They had come in quest of me, and when I heard
them, it was as if a hand had given my heart a squeeze, and for a moment
my breath seemed to be stopped. This past, I heard the old serving-woman
fumbling with the bolts, and peering from behind the curtain of my
casement, I saw that the ways were dark, and the narrow street was lit up
with flaring torches, the lights wavering in the wind. I stepped to the
wide ingle, thinking to creep into the secret hiding-hole. But to what
avail? It might have served my turn if my escape alive from the moat had
only been guessed, but now my master must have told all the story, and
the men-at-arms must be assured that I was within. Thinking thus, I
stood at pause, when a whisper came, as if from within the ingle--