"Had you ever seen the minister before the ceremony?"
"I canna say that I had. But he married my Margaret, and that I am well certain."
"How long did your daughter survive afterwards, madam?"
"A little better than three years. But it was a long time sin' I had seen her."
"You used the word 'murdered.' What did you mean, ma'am?"
"Her bliss was made her bane," Maud answered fiercely. "The squire broke her heart, and none of hers were let to come nigh her."
Neither side, it may be observed, chose to confront the old woman with Everope, and inquire concerning her recognition of him. But the judge now desired him to stand forward.
"Look at that person, madam," said his lordship. "Can you say whether that is the man who performed this marriage?"
"Well, I canna tell at all," was the reply. "It's three-and-twenty years agone, and my eyes grow dimly like. I canna tell at all."
Polydore Riches was the next witness. He proved Mr. Trevethlan's urgent request to him to perform the ceremony, and his refusal; that Margaret had always been treated as the mistress of the castle; and that her children had been by him duly christened as the offspring of Henry and Margaret Trevethlan. He also deposed to the behaviour of her relations; to the anger it produced in Mr. Trevethlan; to their banishment from the castle, and their undisguised mortification. In cross-examination he stated, as his reason for refusing to celebrate the union, that he disapproved both of itself and of its manner.