"But you have offended again," exclaimed the King; "that is the chief charge against you."
"And whoever does make it," replied Hugh de Monthermer, "is a false and perjured traitor, and I will prove it upon him, either by investigation before your Majesty, or by wager of battle--my body against his, with God for the judge."
"Nay--nay, sir," said Henry, "we know your strength and skill in arms right well; and this is not a case where we will trust plain justice to be turned from its course by a strong arm and a bold but perverse heart. We ourselves will be your accuser, with whom there can be no wager of battle; and those we call to prove your crime shall be but witnesses."
"My lord, that cannot be," replied Hugh, boldly. "My King will never be judge and accuser, both in one."
"Then you shall have other judges," cried the Monarch; "your peers shall judge you. But, if you be truly innocent, you will not scruple now to answer at once the charges made against you."
"It is for that, I come," replied the young knight. "Unprepared, not knowing what these charges are, I come to meet them as I may. I pray you, let me hear them."
While he and the King had been speaking, a number of new faces had appeared in the audience chamber, comprising all those who had followed the young nobleman from Lindwell; and Henry, running his eye over them, exclaimed--"Stand forth, Guy de Margan--and you, Hugh Fitzhugh--and you, Sir William Geary, come near also, and say of what you accuse Lord Hugh de Monthermer."
"'Faith, sire," replied Sir William Geary, with his usual sarcastic grin, "I accuse the noble knight of nothing. I was at the pass of arms at Northampton, my lord, when he unhorsed the four best lances in the field. Now, I never was particularly strong in the knees, and, moreover, am getting somewhat rusty with years; so God forbid that I should accuse any man who talks of the wager of battle. When I heard it, I trembled almost as much as Sir Guy de Margan here."
"It is false! I trembled not!" exclaimed Sir Guy.
"True--true," answered the other, "you only shook, and looked sickly."