g open the door,
Roger faced the intruder. "Liar," he said, "to call thyself her
husband!"

Sir John fired up, and made a rush at the sailor, who seized him by
the collar, and in the wrestle they both fell, Roger under. But in a
few seconds he contrived to extricate his right arm, and drawing from
his belt a knife which he wore attached to a cord round his neck, he
opened it with his teeth, and struck it into the breast of Sir John
stretched above him. Edith had during these moments run into the next
room to place the child in safety, and when she came back the knight
was relaxing his hold on Roger's throat. He rolled over upon his back
and groaned.

The only witness of the scene, save the three concerned, was the
nursemaid, who had brought in the child on its father's arrival. She
stated afterwards that nobody suspected Sir John had received his
death wound; yet it was so, though he did not die for a long while,
meaning thereby an hour or two; that Mistress Edith continually
endeavored to staunch the blood, calling her brother Roger a wretch,
and ordering him to get himself gone; on which order he acted, after a
gloomy pause, by opening the window, and letting himself down by the
sill to the ground.

It was then that Sir John, in difficult accents, made his dying
declaration to the nurse and Edith, and, later, the apothecary, which
was to this purport: that the Dame Horseleigh who passed as his wife
at Clyfton, and who had borne him three children, was in truth and
deed, though unconsciously, the wife of another man. Sir John had
married her several years before, in the face of the whole county, as
the widow of one Decimus Strong, who had disappeared shortly after her
union with him, having adventured to the North to join the revolt of
the Nobles, and on that revolt being quelled retreated across the sea.
Two years ago, having discovered the man to be still living in France,
and not wishing to disturb the mind and happiness of her who believed
herself his wife, yet wishing for legitimate issue, Sir John had
informed the king of the facts, who had encouraged him to wed
honestly, though secretly, the young merchant's widow at Havenpool;
she being, therefore, his lawful wife, and she only. That to avoid all
scandal and hubbub he had purposed to let things remain as they were
till fair opportunity should arise of making the true case known with
least pain to all parties concerned; but that, having been thus
suspected