"We have caught you in the fact," cried one.
"You shall blaspheme no more!" shouted another.
"I saw the arch enemy in the midst of them!" added a third.
"They were in the act of worshipping the devil!" said brother Paul.
"To the stake with them, to the stake with them!" roared a barefooted friar.
"You see what you have done," said Ella Brune to her cousin, who stood near with his arms tied. "This was very wrong of you, Nicholas."
"It was," answered Nicholas Brune, in a sorrowful tone; "but they can do no harm to you; for I and others can testify that you came, unknowing whither, and would have left us, if we had allowed you."
"Will they believe your testimony?" asked Ella, in a tone of deep despondency.
Before he could answer, brother Paul approached, and gazing at the fair unhappy girl with a malicious smile, he said, "Ah, ah, fair maiden, I knew your hypocrisy would be detected at length. I did not forget having seen you with the heretics at Liege."
Even as he spoke, however, there was a bustle at the door; and to the surprise of all the hall contained, a number of men completely armed appeared, having at their head a gentleman in the ordinary riding dress of the day, with the knightly spurs over his boots, and two long feathers in his cap.