rd you if you will do this."

"How can I, thou crazy wench," he retorted, "how can I restore the
damsel to her sorrowing father when I do not know where she is?"

"But----"

"It is from thee I want to hear where the lady is."

"From me?"

"Why yes! of course! Thou art in the confidence of thy lover, and
knowest where he keeps the lady hidden. Tell me where she is, and I will
pledge thee my word that thou and he will have nothing more to fear."

"He is not my lover," she murmured dully, "nor am I in his confidence."

She was still on her knees, but had fallen back on her heels, with arms
hanging limp and helpless by her side. Hope so suddenly arisen had
equally quickly died out of her heart, and her pinched face expressed in
every line the despair and misery which had come in its wake.

"Come!" he cried harshly, "play no tricks with me, wench. Thou didst own
to being the rascal's sweetheart."

"I owned to my love for him," she said simply, "not to his love for me."

"I told thee that he will hang or burn unless thou art willing to help
him."

"And I told thee, gracious sir, that I would give my life for him."

"Which is quite unnecessary. All I want is the knowledge of where he
keeps the lady whom he has outraged."

"I cannot help you, mynheer, in that."

"Thou wilt not!" he cried.

"I cannot," she reiterated gently. "I do not know where she is."

"Will fifty guilders help thy memory?" he sneered.

"Fifty guilders would mean ease and comfort to my father and to me for
many months to come. I would do much for fifty guilders but I cannot
tell that which I do not know."

"An hundred guilders, girl, and the safety of thy lover. Will that not
tempt thee?"

"Indeed, indeed, gracious sir," she moaned piteously, "I swear to you
that I do not know."

"Then dost perjure thyself and wilt rue it, wench," he exclaimed as he
jumped to his feet, and with a loud curse kicked the chair away from
him.

The Lord of Stoutenburg was not a man who had been taught to curb his
temper; he had always given way to his passions, allowing them as the
years went on to master every tender feeling within him; for years now
he had sacrificed everything to them, to his ambition, to his revenge,
to his loves and hates. Now that this fool of a girl tried to thwart him
as he thought, he allowed his fury against her full rein, to the
exclusion of reason, of prudence, or ordinary instincts of chivalry. He
stooped over her like a g