"You are tired, lady, and evidently agitated," he said; "and I fear much that some event of a sad and serious nature has gained me the honour of your presence in this wild place."
Alice looked up with the same sparkling smile which had before played for a moment on her countenance. "You cannot deceive me!" she said. "Hugh de Mortmar, do you think that I do not know you?"
The Vert Gallant paused an instant as if in suspense, then threw his arms round the fair girl who stood beside him, and pressed her gently to him. "Dear Alice," he said, "how did you discover me?"
"It were vain to say how, Hugh," replied Alice; "I may have had suspicions long before; but, from the day of the thunderstorm in the forest of Hannut, I have not had a doubt; though why Hugh de Mortmar should need to league with outlaws and adventurers, and, as it would appear, to hide his face even from such strange companions, is more difficult to divine."
"I am, indeed, willing, though not obliged, to hide my face even from the bulk of my gallant followers," replied the young cavalier, undoing the clasps of his casque. "Ay! and in order to guard against surprise or inadvertency, to wear so foul a seeming as this, even beneath that heavy helmet;" and removing the iron cap, he showed her a half mask representing the countenance of a negro, which covered his own face to the beard.
"You start, Alice!" he continued, "and look somewhat aghast! Is it at that fearful painted piece of emptiness?"
"No!" she answered, "no! But it is to think that you--you, De Mortmar--should, for any cause, condescend to hide yourself beneath such a semblance."
"Indeed, Alice!" said De Mortmar, with a smile. "Then tell me, beloved, and put it fairly to your own heart, what is it that a man will not do--what that he should not do--to recover those things that have been snatched from his race by the unjust hand of power, and to free a father from captivity?"
"Nothing, indeed!" replied Alice, to whose bosom one part, at least, of the question went directly home. "Nothing, indeed! and I will believe, with the faith of a martyr, that no other way than this existed for you to accomplish such an object; although till this moment I knew not that you had either parent in existence."
"But your father did," replied the young cavalier; "and when first I called these troops together, Alice--for you must not confound them with a band of lawless plunderers--when first I called them together, it seemed the only way by which I could ever hope to liberate my imprisoned father. I am Hugh of Gueldres; and it has been only the hope and the promise of your hand, joined to the prospect held out by your noble father of obtaining my own parent's liberation by peaceful means, which has so long prevented me from asserting his right in arms, though the whole force of Burgundy were prepared to check me--I might say, indeed, to crush me," he added; "for though, with the forces of Hannut, and all the discontented men which the late duke arrayed against him in his own dominions, with the aid of France, and, perhaps, of Austria, my right and my good cause might have done much, while Charles remained embroiled in foreign wars. I could have hoped for little had he once turned his whole force against me. But, as I have said, your father persuaded me to delay. During the years that I have thus been induced to pause, I have been obliged to hide, as best I might, the force of free companions I had raised; and no method of concealment could be more efficacious than that which I have adopted. As the green riders of Hannut we passed nearly unmolested, while the Duke of Burgundy pursued his ambitious schemes against Lorraine, and his mad ones against the Swiss; and though, if you recall the past events, you will find that the green riders have punished the guilty and the bloodthirsty--have laid many a plundering noble under contribution, and have levelled more than one stronghold of cruelty and oppression with the ground, yet not one act of baseness or barbarity can be traced to themselves."