I said something to
dissuade her, but she overruled me; and, shame to myself, I consented
to assist her. She embraced me, and gave me a letter to convey to him,
which I did, by slipping it beneath the ornaments of the handle of her
lute, which I sent as an excuse for the minstrel to tune. It was to
acquaint him with her intentions, and this night he was to have visited
her apartment!"
During this recital the king sat with compressed lips listening, but
with a countenance proclaiming the collecting tempest within--changing
to livid paleness or portentous fire, at almost every sentence. On
mentioning the letter, he clinched his hand, as if then he grasped the
thunderbolt. The lords immediately apprehended that this was the
letter which Soulis found.
"And is this all you know of the affair?" inquired Percy, seeing that
she made a pause. "And enough, too?" cried Soulis, "to blast the most
vaunted chastity in Christendom."
"Take the woman hence," cried the king, in a burst of wrath, that gave
his voice a preternatural force, which yet resounded from the vaulted
roof, while he added--"Never let me see her traitor face again!" The
baroness withdrew in terror; and Edward, calling Sir Piers Gaveston,
commanded him to place himself at the head of a double guard, and go in
person to bring the object of his officious introduction to meet the
punishment due to his crime.
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