"I cannot contradict thee," went on Margaret's lover, "but you will show us the exact scene of the fray, Sir Henry, of course?"
"Assuredly I will, to-morrow—if I am well enough," he added carefully.
Sir George Vernon noted the answer with displeasure. He was not very strong in his belief of Sir Henry's innocence as yet, though the evidence in De la Zouch's favour would have been decisive enough for him had not Stanley shaken it so.
"Has thy Dorothy forsaken thee, then, Sir George?" asked Crowleigh pertinently.
"Why no, Sir Everard—yes; that is—I cannot say," he hopelessly replied. "It must be so, and yet, no! I cannot believe it either."
De la Zouch ground his teeth in ill-suppressed rage. Matters had taken a decidedly unfavourable turn; he was being sorely worsted, and he wished himself far away. The suspicions of Sir Thomas Stanley were pressing uncomfortably near him, and he found himself in a quandary how to evade them.
"I am doubted, Sir George, I see," he said angrily. "Lady Vernon is the only one who does me justice. I will go. Your deed shall be blazoned to the world. Is this the boasted hospitality of the King of the Peak?—then I disdain it. I shall shake the dust off my feet and shall depart at once, and you will find out when too late that you drove away in such a scurvy fashion the truest friend you ever had," and boiling over with well-simulated fury, De la Zouch leapt from his chair and passed through the doorway, chuckling to himself at the success of his little scheme to extricate himself.
He was liberated now from the awkwardness of his false position. His day's rest and the attention he had received had done wonders towards effecting his recovery, and ordering a horse to be saddled, a few minutes later he passed out of the precincts of the Hall, and hoping that he would never have occasion to return, he mustered up his strength and started out upon a midnight ride to Ashby.