we had
finished breakfast the doors of our chamber were thrown open and in
marched a number of soldiers wearing Joshua's badge. They were headed by
an officer of his household, who commanded us to rise and follow him.

"Where to?" asked Orme.

"To take your trial before the Child of Kings and her Council, Gentile,
upon the charge of having murdered certain of her subjects," answered
the officer sternly.

"That's all right," said Higgs with a sigh of relief. "If Maqueda is
chairman of the Bench we are pretty certain of an acquittal, for Orme's
sake if not for our own."

"Don't you be too sure of that," I whispered into his ear. "The
circumstances are peculiar, and women have been known to change their
minds."

"Adams," he replied, glaring at me through his smoked spectacles, "If
you talk like that we shall quarrel. Maqueda change her mind indeed!
Why, it is an insult to suggest such a thing, and if you take my advice
you won't let Oliver hear you. Don't you remember, man, that she's in
love with him?"

"Oh, yes," I answered, "but I remember also that Prince Joshua is in
love with her, and that she is his prisoner."

CHAPTER XX

THE TRIAL AND AFTER

They set us in a line, four ragged-looking fellows, all of us with
beards of various degrees of growth, that is, all the other three, for
mine had been an established fact for years, and everything having been
taken away from us, we possessed neither razor nor scissors.

In the courtyard of our barrack we were met by a company of soldiers,
who encircled us about with a triple line of men, as we thought to
prevent any attempt of escape. So soon as we passed the gates I found,
however, that this was done for a different reason, namely, to protect
us from the fury of the populace. All the way from the barrack to the
courthouse, whither we were being taken now that the palace was burned,
the people were gathered in hundreds, literally howling for our blood.
It was a strange, and, in a way, a dreadful sight to see even the
brightly dressed women and children shaking their fists and spitting at
us with faces distorted by hate.

"Why they love you so little, father, when you do so much for them?"
asked Roderick, shrugging his shoulders and dodging a stone that nearly
hit him on the head.

"For two reasons," I answered. "Because their Lady loves one of us too
much, and because through us many of their people have lost their lives.
Also they hate strangers, and are