My lord half rose from his seat. "She is
bewitched," he said, with dry lips. "She will say what she has been
told to say. Lest she speak to her shame, we should refuse to hear
her."
She had been standing in the centre of the floor, her hands clasped,
her body bowed toward the Governor, but at my lord's words she
straightened like a bow unbent. "I may speak, your Honor?" she
asked clearly.
The Governor, who had looked askance at the working face of the
man beside him, slightly bent his head and leaned back in his
great armchair. The King's favorite started to his feet. The King's
ward turned her eyes upon him. "Sit down, my lord," she said.
"Surely these gentlemen will think that you are afraid of what I, a
poor erring woman, rebellious to the King, traitress to mine own
honor, late the plaything of a pirate ship, may say or do. Truth, my
lord, should be more courageous." Her voice was gentle, even
plaintive, but it had in it the quality that lurks in the eyes of the
crouching panther.
My lord sat down, one hand hiding his working mouth, the other
clenched on the arm of his chair as if it had been an arm of flesh.
CHAPTER XXVII IN WHICH I FIND AN ADVOCATE
SHE came slowly nearer the ring of now very quiet and attentive
faces until she stood beside me, but she neither looked at me nor
spoke to me.
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