“With these words the stranger left the hall like a shadow.
“‘Bring her back—bring her back,’ said the French bride, hastily.
“‘No, no!’ said Sir Charles, waving his hand impatiently; ‘touch her not, heed her not, at your peril.’
“The bride bent her head over the flowers to conceal her anger, and from amongst them dropped the broken half of a ring.
“Sir Charles recognised it at once.
“It was the half of that ring which he had broken with his betrothed Leoline.
“He required not such a sign to convince him that the figure so full of ineffable grace, that touching voice, that simple action, so tender in its sentiment, that gift, that blessing, came only from the heart-broken and forgiving Leoline.
“But Lord Warbeck, alone in his solitary tower, passed to and fro with agitated steps.
“Deep, undying wrath at his brother’s baseness mingled with one burning, delicious hope.
“He confessed now that he had deceived himself when he thought his passion was no more; was there any longer a bar to his union with Leoline?