These little affairs of state being over, Miranda turned to the
little gentleman beside her, with the observation
"I believe, your highness, it a on this night the Earl of
Gloucester is to be tried on a charge of high treason, in it
not?"
His highness growled a respectful assent.
"Then let him be brought before us," said the queen. "Go,
guards, and fetch him."
Two of the soldiers bowed low, and backed from the royal
presence, amid dead and ominous silence. At this interesting
stage of the proceedings, as Sir Norman was leaning forward,
breathless and excited, a footstep sounded on the flagged floor
beside him, and some one suddenly grasped his shoulder with no
gentle hand.
CHAPTER IX.
LEOLINE.
In one instant Sir Norman was on his feet and his hand on his
sword. In the tarry darkness, neither the face nor figure of the
intruder could be made out, but he merely saw a darker shadow
beside him standing in the sea of darkness. Perhaps he might
have thought it a ghost, but that the hand which grasped his
shoulder was unmistakably of flesh, and blood, and muscle, and
the breathing of its owner was distinctly audible by his ads.
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