m
doubly happy to have saved you, first, as a gentleman, secondly, as being
the man to whom our gracious prince has assigned you as a wife. I am Sir
Rudolph, Earl of Evesham."

As from the first the girl had been convinced that she had fallen into
the power of her lawless suitor, this came upon her as no surprise.

"Whether your story is true, Sir Rudolph," she said, "or not, God knows,
and I, a poor weak girl, will not pretend to venture to say. It is
between you and your conscience. If, as you say, you have saved me from
the power of the outlaws, I demand that, as a knight and a gentleman, you
return with me at once to the convent from which I was taken by force."

"I cannot do that," Sir Rudolph said. "Fortune has placed you in my
hands, and has enabled me to carry out the commands of the prince.
Therefore, though I would fain yield to your wishes and so earn your
goodwill, which above all things I wish to obtain, yet my duty towards
the prince commands me to utilize the advantage which fate has thrown in
my hands."

"You must do as you will, Sir Rudolph," the girl said with dignity. "I
believe not your tale. You sought before, in person, to carry me off, but
failed, and you have now employed other means to do so. The tale of your
conduct to Dame Editha has reached my ears, and I hold you a foresworn
knight and a dishonoured man, and as such I would rather die than become
your wife, although as yet I am but a child, and have no need to talk of
weddings for years to come."

"We need not parley here," the knight said coldly. "We shall have plenty
of time when at my castle."

The litter was now lifted, placed between two horses, and proceeded
rapidly on its journey. Although the hope was but faint, yet until the
gates of the castle closed upon them the Lady Margaret still hoped that
rescue might reach her. But the secret had been too well kept, and it was
not until the following day that the man who had been placed in a cottage
near the convent arrived in all haste in the forest, to say that it was
only in the morning that he had learnt that the convent had been broken
open by men disguised as archers, and the Lady Margaret carried off.

Four days elapsed before Sir Rudolph presented himself before the girl
he had captured. So fearfully was his face bruised and disfigured by the
blow from the mailed hand of Cuthbert three weeks before, that he did not
wish to appear before her under such unfavourable circumstance