“Prince, prince, speak not of her.  If I have been beguiled, if I have betrayed the feelings which I cannot help, but which I must hold sternly in check —­ be not thou the one to taunt me with my weakness.  There is none like her in the world.  I have known it for long.  But even because I know it so well I may not even dream of her.  It is not with me as of old, when her father spoke to me of troth plight.  I am a beggar, an outcast, a prisoner.  She is rich, honoured, courted.  She is the brightest star of the court —­”

“And she loveth thee, Wendot,” interposed Alphonso firmly.  “She has loved thee from childhood with a faithful and true love which merits better things than to be cast aside as if it were but dross.  What are lands and gold to a woman if her lover share them not?  Is it meet that she should suffer so cruelly simply because her father has left her well endowed?  Wendot, on Lord Montacute’s dying bed this daughter of his avowed her love for thee, and he gave her his blessing and bade her act as she would.  Art thou, then, to be the one to break her heart, ay, and thine own, too, because thou art too proud to take more than thou canst give?

“Fie, man! the world is wide and thou art young.  Thou hast time to win thy spurs and bring home noble spoil to lay at thy lady’s feet.  Only let not pride stand in the way of her happiness and thine own.  Thou hast said that life is dark and drear unless it be shared with some loved one.  Then how canst thou hold back, when thou hast confessed thine own love and learned that hers is thine?  Take it, and be grateful for the treasure thou hast won, and fear not but that thou wilt bring as much as thou wilt receive.  There are strange chances in the fate of each one of us.  Who knows but that thou and she will not yet reign again in the halls of Dynevor?”

Wendot started and flushed, and again paced down the whole length of the room.  When he returned to the window Alphonso had gone, and in his place stood Gertrude herself, her sweet face dyed rosy red with blushes, her hands half stretched out towards him, her lips quivering with the intensity of her emotion.

He paused just one moment looking at her, and then holding out his arms, he said: 

“Gertrude!”

Next moment she was clasped in his close embrace, and was shedding happy tears upon his shoulder.

“Oh!” said Gertrude at last, in a soft whisper, “it was worth waiting for this.  I never thought I could have been so happy.”

“Joanna —­ Alphonso, it is all settled.  He will leave the castle with me.  He will help me now in the care of my lands.  But he will not move whilst Griffeth lives.  And I think he is right.  They have so loved each other, and he will not leave his brother to die amongst strangers in captivity.”

“It is like him,” said Joanna eagerly.  “Gertrude, thou hast found a very proper knight, as we told thee from the first, when he was but a lad, and held the Eagle’s Crag against a score of men.  But ye must be wedded soon, that there be no delay when once the poor boy be gone.  Every day he looks more shadowy and frail.  Methinks that our softer air ill suits him, for he hath dwindled to a mere shadow since he came.  You will not have to wait long.”