e."

"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 the horrible consequences
of such an accusation arose before her.

That same day Eustace was summoned to the Prince's presence.

"Sir Eustace Lynwood," said Edward, gravely, "I hear you have served
the King well beneath the banner of Sir John Chandos. Your friends
have wrought with me to give you occasion to prove yourself worthy of
your spurs, and I have determined to confer on you the government of my
Chateau of Norbelle, on the frontier of Gascony, trusting to find you a
true and faithful governor and Castellane."

"I trust, my Lord, that you have never had occasion to deem less
honourably of me," said Eustace; and his clear open eye and brow
courted rather than shunned the keen look of scrutiny that the Prince
fixed upon him. His heart leapt at the hope that the time for inquiry
was come, but the Prince in another moment sank his eyes again, with
more, however, of the weary impatience of illness than of actual
displeasure, and merely replied, "Kneel down, then, Sir Knight, and
take the oaths of fidelity."

Eustace obeyed, hardly able to suppress a sigh at the disappointment of
his hopes.

"You will receive the necessary orders and supplies from Sir John
Chandos, and from the Treasurer," said Edward, i