“A wilful man must have his way,” returned Chowles, hurrying up the main staircase.  “It is not my fault if any harm befalls you.”

They had just gained the landing when a door on the right was suddenly thrown open, and Sir Paul Parravicin stood before them.  He looked surprised and startled at the sight of the apprentice, and angrily demanded his business.  “I am come for Nizza Macascree,” replied Leonard, “whom you and Chowles have detained against her will.”

Parravicin glanced sternly and inquiringly at the coffin-maker.

“I have protested to him that she is not here, Sir Paul,” said the latter, “but he will not believe me, and has compelled me, by threats of taking my life, to bring him and his companion to you.”

“Then take them back again,” rejoined Parravicin, turning haughtily upon his heel.

“That answer will not suffice, Sir Paul,” cried Leonard—­“I will not depart without her.”

“How!” exclaimed the knight, drawing his sword.  “Do you dare to intrude upon my presence?  Begone! or I will punish your presumption.”  And he prepared to attack the apprentice.

“Advance a footstep,” rejoined Leonard, who had never relinquished his grasp of Chowles, “and I pass my sword through this man’s body.  Speak, villain,” he continued, in a tone so formidable that the coffin-maker shook with apprehension—­“is she here or not?” Chowles gazed from him to the knight, whose deportment was equally menacing and appeared bewildered with terror.

“It is needless,” said Leonard, “your looks answer for you.  She is.”

“Yes, yes, I confess she is,” replied Chowles.

“You hear what he says, Sir Paul,” remarked Leonard.

“His fears would make him assert anything,” rejoined Parravicin, disdainfully.  “If you do not depart instantly, I will drive you forth.”

“Sir Paul Parravicin,” rejoined Leonard, in an authoritative tone, “I command you in the king’s name, to deliver up this girl.”

Parravicin laughed scornfully.  “The king has no authority here,” he said.

“Pardon me, Sir Paul,” rejoined Chowles, who began to be seriously alarmed at his own situation, and eagerly grasped at the opportunity that offered of extricating himself from it—­“pardon me.  If it is the king’s pleasure she should be removed, it materially alters the case, and I can be no party to her detention.”

“Both you and your employer will incur his majesty’s severest displeasure, by detaining her after this notice,” remarked Leonard.

“Before I listen to the young man’s request, let him declare that it is his intention to deliver her up to the king,” rejoined Parravicin, coldly.

“It is my intention to deliver her up to one who has the best right to take charge of her,” returned Leonard.

“You mean her father,” sneered Parravicin.

“Ay, but not the person you suppose to be her father,” replied Leonard.  “An important discovery has been made respecting her parentage.”