elf,
"this news is indeed amazing! The fierce Louis of Hungary waive the
right of the sword, and choose other umpire than the field of battle!"

"And this," continued Adrian, in a significant tone, "this it was which
induced me to obey your courteous summons. I know, brave Montreal, that
you hold intercourse with Louis. Louis has given to the Tribune the best
pledge of his amity and alliance; will you do wisely if you--"

"Wage war with the Hungarian's ally," interrupted Montreal. "This you
were about to add; the same thought crossed myself. My Lord, pardon
me--Italians sometimes invent what they wish. On the honour of a knight
of the Empire, these tidings are the naked truth?"

"By my honour, and on the Cross," answered Adrian, drawing himself up;
"and in proof thereof, I am now bound to Naples to settle with the Queen
the preliminaries of the appointed trial."

"Two crowned heads before the tribunal of a plebeian, and one a
defendant against the charge of murther!" muttered Montreal; "the news
might well amaze me!"

He remained musing and silent a little while, till looking up, he caught
Adeline's tender gaze fixed upon him with that deep solicitude with
which she watched the outward effect of schemes and projects she was too
soft to desire to know, and too innocent to share.

"Lady mine," said the Provencal, fondly, "how sayest thou? must we
abandon our mountain castle, and these wild woodland scenes, for the
dull walls of a city? I fear me so.--The Lady Adeline," he continued,
turning to Adrian, "is of a singular bias; she hates the gay crowds
of streets and thoroughfares, and esteems no palace like the solitary
outlaw's hold. Yet, methinks, she might outshine all the faces of
Italy,--thy mistress, Lord Adrian, of course, excepted."

"It is an exception which only a lover, and that too a betrothed lover,
would dare to make," replied Adrian, gallantly.

"Nay," said Adeline, in a voice singularly sweet and clear, "nay, I know
well at what price to value my lord's flattery, and Signor di Castello's
courtesy. But you are bound, Sir Knight, to a court, that, if fame speak
true, boasts in its Queen the very miracle and mould of beauty."

"It is some years since I saw the Queen of Naples," answered Adrian;
"and I little dreamed then, when I gazed upon that angel face, that I
should live to hear her accused of the foulest murther that ever stained
even Italian royalty."

"And, as if resolved to prove her guilt,"