'No,' I said again more loudly, but again my utterance failed to reach the aged ears bent to listen.
'Say "I will,"' repeated the clergyman.
'I cannot,' I almost shrieked now in my agony and fear.
'You are a wicked, lying girl,' hissed the bridegroom in my ear. 'You promised to marry me.'
'But you deceived me,' ventured I.
'My dear,' said the clergyman gravely, 'try to collect yourself. Did you not come here into this chapel to be wedded to this man?'
'Yes—but——'
I thought of the man I loved, whose safety I imagined I had purchased by that daring promise to Sir Claudius, and, knowing from what Saul had said, that I had been deceived, was altogether overwhelmed with grief and misery. A mist gathered around me, the church grew dark; releasing my hand from the arm that held it, I stretched it towards the old clergyman, and then fell half-unconscious at his feet.
Instantly there was a tremendous noise in the chapel. Swords clashed, men shouted and fought wildly. Some one trod upon my dress almost upon me, and was hurled off by strong arms, which the next instant picked me up and placed me out of danger.
I heard Sir Claudius, in harsh but abject accents, begging for mercy, and, looking down—for I had been lifted into the gallery of the chapel—saw him on his knees before Sir Hubert Blair, who, brave and handsome, stood over him with his drawn sword.