Tristram groaned, and averted his head.
“He is charged with felony and sorcery,” said the king sternly, “and you, maiden, come under the same suspicion.”
“Believe it not, sire,” cried the old man, flinging himself at Henry's feet; “oh, believe it not. Whatever you may judge of me, believe her innocent. She was brought up most devoutly, by a lay sister of the monastery at Chertsey; and she knows nothing, save by report, of what passes in the forest.”
“Yet she has seen and conversed with Morgan Fenwolf,” the king.
“Not since he was outlawed,” said Tristram.
“I saw him to—day, as I was brought to the castle,” cried Mabel, “and—” but recollecting that she might implicate her grandfather, she suddenly stopped.
“What said he?—ha!” demanded the king.
“I will tell your majesty what passed,” interposed Nicholas Clamp, stepping forward, “for I was with the damsel at the time. He came upon us suddenly from behind a great tree, and ordered her to accompany him to her grandsire.”
“Ha!” exclaimed the king.
“But he had no authority for what he said, I am well convinced,” pursued Clamp. “Mabel disbelieved him and refused to go, and I should have captured him if the fiend he serves had not lent him a helping hand.”