"Celestina!" said a well-known voice in her ear, "hasten to accompany me from this wretched den, and the tyranny of your oppressors."
She started at the first sound, but quickly recovering herself, replied, in a tone as low:
"Of what avail? My usefulness here is ended. I will give place to another, and Heaven will employ me somewhere else."
"Be it so," said the Knight; "yet fly, for the sake of thy liberty, perhaps of thy life."
"I fear not for my life," she added; "and as for my liberty, I cannot long be deprived of it."
"Time flies! What madness is this? I have risked my life to rescue thee, and now dost thou reject my service?"
"I cannot fly with thee. Better to die."
"What strange language do I hear? What mean you? Explain quickly, for our time is short."
"I have no explanation, except that I will not go. The heretics may rage, but the virgin will protect me."
"O, listen!" urged the Knight. "You shall be delivered from this atrocious persecution. I will take thee to the French settlements, where thou wilt be secure, and mistress of thine own movements."