"Well .... if the Governor doesn't .... for the present, perhaps."
"For good," said Fenella.
Within a few minutes she was settled in her new quarters—a large, dark, cell-like chamber, of irregular shape, with a deeply-recessed window, a piece of cocoa-nut matting, a deal table, a chair, a wash-stand and a truckle bed.
Two hundred years before it had been the 'tiring room of the greatest of her ancestors, Charlotte de la Tremouille (Countess of Derby), when, in the absence of her husband, she held the fortress for weeks against the siege of Cromwell's forces.
The blood of the Stanleys was in it still.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT
A little later Stowell was brought up for trial at a special sitting of the Court of General Gaol Delivery held in Douglas.
"This wretched case has injured the credit of the island in England," said the Governor to the Attorney-General. The sooner it was over and done with the better.
For a long half-hour before the proceedings began the courthouse was dark with men. Indignation against Stowell had succeeded to astonishment. Piecing things together (from Fenella's outburst in Court to Gell's threat of personal violence against the Deemster) people had arrived at something like the truth. The lips which a few days before had saluted Stowell with cries of worshipful lover were ready to break into shouts of execration.