"I will answer you frankly," returned Markham. "I left my room on that occasion, because I wished to discover whether Anthony Tidkins, to whom I have alluded, was in the house——"
"The Palace," said Zingary.
"I beg your Majesty's pardon—the Palace," continued Richard; "and I thank God that I was more or less instrumental in releasing from a horrible dungeon a poor woman——"
"We know whom you mean," interrupted Zingary, sternly. "Did you see a tall young man——"
"Who called himself by the strange name of Skilligalee?" added Markham, concluding the King's question for him. "I did;—I helped him to release that woman he named Margaret."
"And whom the laws of the Zingarees had condemned to the penalty from which you freed her," said the King. "Was it right, young man, thus to step between the culprit and the decree of justice?"
"I acted in accordance with the dictates of humanity," replied Richard firmly; "and under such circumstances I should act in a similar way again."
"The young gentleman speaks well," said Morcar, who admired the resolution evinced in our hero's tone and manner.
"And he showed a good heart," observed Eva, now speaking for the first time since Richard's arrival, and displaying her brilliant teeth.