"I thank you, Uncle," he said. "I am deeply indebted for your so great
interest in me. I thank you too, Malise, for bringing about this
timely interference. I will pay my debts one day. In the meantime your
duty is done. Depart, both of you, I command you!"

Outside the thunder began to growl in the distance. An extraordinary
feeling of oppression had slowly filled the air. The lamps, swinging
on the pavilion roof tree, flickered and flared, alternately rising
and sinking like the life in the eyes of a dying man.

All the while the lady sat still on the couch, with an expression of
amused contempt on her face. But now she rose to her feet.

"And I also ask, in the name of the King of France, by what right do
you intrude within the precincts of a lady's bower. I bid you to leave
me!"

She pointed imperiously with her white finger to the black, oblong
doorway, from which Malise's rude hand had dragged the covering flap
to the ground.

But the churchman and his guide stood their ground.

Suddenly the Abbot reached a hand and took the sword on which the
master armourer leaned. With its point he drew a wide circle upon the
rich carpets which formed the floor of the pavilion.

"William Douglas," he said, "I command you to come within this circle,
whilst in the right of my holy office I exorcise that demon there who
hath so nearly beguiled you to your ruin."