Guardiola's guile might suggest. He believed--he could not choose but
to believe--that in his madness of words and half-conscious utterances,
from very failure of will and weakness of soul and lack of knightly
honor, he had refused to endure, and had betrayed the English to
surprise and death."

The man who had moved from his seat was now so near to the notable
guests that when, drawing himself up, he placed his hand upon Arden's
shoulder, he came face to face with Pedro Mexia. The latter, uttering a
strangled cry, threw up his hands as though to ward off an apparition.
With a sudden spring, one booted foot upon Arden's heavy chair, the
figure leaped upon the table, disarranging all its glittering array, and
for a second facing the company which had arisen with excitement and
outcry. The next, like a dart, he crossed the intervening space and
threw himself upon Mexia, dragging the bulky form from the table and
hurling it to the floor. Weaponless, the assaulter had used his hands,
and now with a knee upon Mexia's breast he strove to throttle him. When,
Spanish and English, those that were nearest of Don Alonzo's guests were
upon him, the face that he turned over his shoulder showed an
intolerable white fury of wrath. "Thy sword, John Nevil!" he gasped.
"Thou seest I wear none! Arden, thou'rt no friend of mine if thou
flingst me not thy dagger!... Ah dog! that companied with the hell-hound
of the pack, loll _thy_ tongue out now! Let _thy_ eyeballs start from
the socket--"

When the two men were separated, the one lay huddled and unconscious
against his chair, and the other stood with iron composure, glancing
from the unconscious envoy to his host Alonzo Brava. "I know not who you
are, senor," spoke the latter, with anger hardly controlled, "but you
have broken truce and done bodily injury to my guest, who not being able
at the moment to speak for himself--"

"Your pardon, senor, for any discourtesy towards my host," answered
Ferne. "And I would give you satisfaction here and now if--if--" He
looked down upon his empty hands. The gesture was seen of all. Made by
him, it came as one of those slight acts which have a power to pierce
the heart and enlighten the understanding. Unconscious as it was, the
movement rent away the veil of four years, broke any remnant of the
spell that was upon the English, set him high and clear before
them--the peer of Francis Drake, of John Nevil, of Raleigh and of
Sidney. This was Sir Morti