“Begone with yourselves, sirs,” said the King to Neville and De Vaux.
The first obeyed, but the latter would not stir from the King's presence.
“If you said I was in the right,” replied De Vaux to his sovereign, “I will be treated as one should be who hath been found to be right—that is, I will have my own will. I leave you not with this false Scot.”
“How! De Vaux,” said Richard angrily, and stamping slightly, “darest thou not venture our person with one traitor?”
“It is in vain you frown and stamp, my lord,” said De Vaux; “I venture not a sick man with a sound one, a naked man with one armed in proof.”
“It matters not,” said the Scottish knight; “I seek no excuse to put off time. I will speak in presence of the Lord of Gilsland. He is good lord and true.”
“But half an hour since,” said De Vaux, with a groan, implying a mixture of sorrow and vexation, “and I had said as much for thee!”
“There is treason around you, King of England,” continued Sir Kenneth.
“It may well be as thou sayest,” replied Richard; “I have a pregnant example.”
“Treason that will injure thee more deeply than the loss of a hundred banners in a pitched field. The—the—” Sir Kenneth hesitated, and at length continued, in a lower tone, “The Lady Edith—”