"Yes, I speak right. Do you not see, Lady Agnes, it is the only way
to free your house of this stumbling-block--this beggarly upstart
Eustace--who, as long as he lives, will never acknowledge Fulk's
rights, and would bring up his nephew to the same pride."

"And is it possible, Sir Leonard, that brother of mine, and belted
Knight, should devise so foul a scheme of treachery! Oh, unsay it
again! Let me believe it was my own folly that conjured up so
monstrous a thought!"

"Ay, that is the way with women," said Leonard; "they never look at
the sense of the matter. Why, this Eustace, what terms should be
kept with him, who has dealings with the Evil One? and--"

"I will neither hear a noble Knight maligned, nor suffer him to be
betrayed," interrupted Agnes. "I have listened to you too long,
Sir Leonard Ashton, and will stain my ears no longer. I thank you,
however, for having given me such warning as to enable me to traverse
them."

"What will you do?" asked Leonard, with a look of impotent anger.

"Appeal instantly to the Prince. Tell him the use that is made of
his Castles, and the falsehoods told him of his most true-hearted
Knight!" and Agnes, with glancing eyes, was already rising for the
purpose, forgetting, in her eager indignation, all that must follow,
when Leonard, muttering "What madness possessed me to tell her!"
stood full before her, saying, gloomily, "Do so, Lady, if you
choose to ruin your brother!" The timid girl stood appalled, as