“Psha!” cried the Queen, laughing. “Lead on my horse, Sir Groom!”
Sir Walter, with seeming discomposure, led on the horse, which was now quite pacified, towards the gate of the fort; and the cavalier who had helped him to rescue the Queen, and who had unfortunately been overlooked, followed in silence. It was the Earl of Essex.
CHAPTER XIII.
The discovery that the reputed Don Rafaele, whom he had supposed to be a gay young bachelor, was no other than his whilome mistress, Donna Inez, struck Hildebrand Clifford with consternation. For a moment, indeed, he was perfectly paralysed, and lost all power of motion. His whole soul and faculties were bowed before the devoted passion for him which the discovery revealed. His every spring of thought, as if turned for one only aim, started under the shock, and, as they thrilled through his bosom, overwhelmed him with the terrors of remorse.
But though he had been weak enough to err, though the passing consequence of his error pressed severely on his mind, he was of that temperament which, however trying the occasion, will rebound from a shock, and suffer no visitation to shackle its promptitude. His energies were depressed, but they were not crushed; and, after the first blow had passed, they revived, and impelled him to make the only reparation for his trespass, by his present proceedings, that circumstances allowed of.
“And is it thou, indeed, my sweet lady?” he said, in a thick voice. “Oh! I have wronged thee most cruelly!”
“Not a whit! not a whit!” faltered Inez. “’Tis rather I that have wronged thee.”