“Mine,” returned Wilfrid. “And never yet did Courtenay speak falsely, or—sign a placard that his father had died of apoplexy!”
“By heaven, you die for that saying!” cried Alexander, clapping his hand upon his sword-hilt.
“Faith! ’tis hard if one must die for speaking the truth!”
“Get you from the side of that lady,” said the Czar, his eyes blazing with wrath.
“Do not leave me, Wilfrid!” murmured Marie.
“The Czar bids, but the Czarina forbids!” returned Wilfrid. “Honour enjoins me to obey the lady.”
“By what right do you constitute yourself her champion?”
“By the right of every man to protect a woman, even the wife of another, from injustice.”
“Injustice?”
“You have threatened an innocent lady with life-long imprisonment in a convent. From such fate it shall be my duty to defend her.”