She lay upon the bed in a deep sleep.

"Awake, Helen!" he cried; "for your life, awake!" She opened her eyes; but, without allowing her time to speak, he hastily added; "The castle is full of armed men, led hither by the English commander, Aymer de Valence, and the execrable Soulis.

Unless you fly through the vaulted passage, you will be their prisoner." Helen gazed at him in terror.

"Where is my father?
Leave him I cannot." "Fly, in pity to your father! Oh, do not hesitate! What will be his anguish, should you fall into the hands of the furious man whose love you have rejected; when it will no longer be in the power of a parent to preserve your person from the outrages of his eager and avengeful passion! If you had seen Soulis' threatening eyes--" He was interrupted by a clamor in the opposite gallery, and the shrieks of women.

Helen grasped his arm.