t heeding, not listening, distracted by
a terror that seemed to shake her whole frame and to threaten her very
reason, continued to cry out loudly upon her father's name,--her great
father, wakeful, then, for the baffled ravisher's tottering throne!

Edward had still sufficient possession of his reason to be alarmed lest
some loiterer or sentry in the outer court might hear the cries which
his attempts to soothe but the more provoked. Grinding his teeth, and
losing patience, he said to Adam, "Thou knowest me, friend,--I am thy
king. Since the Lady Anne, in her bewilderment, prefers thine aid to
mine, help to bear her back to her apartment; and thou, young mistress,
lend thine arm. This wizard's den is no fit chamber for our high-born
guest."

"No, no; drive me not hence, Master Warner--that man--that king--give me
not up to his--his--"

"Beware!" exclaimed the king.

It was not till now that Adam's simple mind comprehended the true cause
of Anne's alarm, which Sibyll still conjectured not, but stood trembling
by her friend's side, and close to her father.

"Do not fear, maiden;" said Adam Warner, laying his hand upon the
loosened locks that swept over his bosom, "for though I am old and
feeble, God and his angels are in every spot where virtue trembles and
resists. My lord king, thy sceptre extends not over a human soul!"

"Dotard, prate not to me!" said Edward, laying his hand on his dagger.
Sibyll saw the movement, and instinctively placed herself between her
father and the king. That slight form, those pure, steadfast eyes, those
features, noble at once and delicate, recalled to Edward the awe which
had seized him in his first dark design; and again that awe came over
him. He retreated.

"I mean harm to none," said he, almost submissively; "and if I am so
unhappy as to scare with my presence the Lady Anne, I will retire,
praying you, donzell, to see to her state, and lead her back to her
chamber when it so pleases herself. Saying this much, I command you, old
man, and you, maiden, to stand back while I but address one sentence to
the Lady Anne."

With these words he gently advanced to Anne, and took her hand; but,
snatching it from him, the poor lady broke from Adam, rushed to the
casement, opened it, and seeing some figures indistinct and distant in
the court below, she called out in a voice of such sharp agony that it
struck remorse and even terror into Edward's soul.

"Alas!" he muttered, "she will not