There is more good character in my little finger than in his whole body, and," she added, "than in that of his mother before him"-- an allusion at which the marquis flushed, while, satisfied for the present with this home-thrust, Betty sat down.
He had proposed to Margaret, but she was not willing to marry him, as he found that she was affianced to a distant cousin of hers, the Senor Peter Brome, a swashbuckler who was in trouble for the killing of a man in London, as he had killed the soldier of the Holy Hermandad in Spain.
Therefore, in his despair, being deeply enamoured of her, and knowing that he could offer her great place and fortune, he conceived the idea of carrying her off, and to do so was obliged, much against his will, to abduct Betty also.
So after many adventures they came to Granada, where he was able to show the Dona Margaret that the Senor Peter Brome was employing his imprisonment in making love to that member of his household, Inez, who had been spoken of, but now could not be found.
Here Peter, who could bear this no longer, also rose and called him a liar to his face, saying that if he had the opportunity he would prove it on his body, but was ordered by the king to sit down and be silent.
Having been convinced of her lover's unfaithfulness, the marquis went on, the Dona Margaret had at length consented to become his wife on condition that her father, the Senor Brome, and her servant, Betty Dene, were allowed to escape from Granada---- "Where," remarked the queen, "you had no right to detain them, Marquis.
Except, perhaps, the father, John Castell," she added significantly.
Where, he admitted with sorrow, he had no right to detain them.
"Therefore," went on the queen acutely, "there was no legal or moral consideration for this alleged promise of marriage,"-- a point at which the lawyers nodded approvingly.
The marquis submitted that there was a consideration; that at any rate the Dona Margaret wished it.

On the day arranged for the wedding the prisoners were let go, disguised as Moors, but he now knew that through the trickery of the woman Inez, whom he believed had been bribed by Castell and his fellow-Jews, the Dona Margaret escaped in place of her servant, Betty, with whom he subsequently went through the form of marriage, believing her to be Margaret.
As regards the embrace before the ceremony, it took place in a shadowed room, and he thought that Betty's face and hair must have been painted and dyed to resemble those of Margaret.

For the rest, he was certain that the ceremonial cup of wine that he drank before he led the woman to the altar was drugged, since he only remembered the marriage itself very dimly, and after that nothing at all until he woke upon the following morning with an aching brow to see Betty sitting by him.

As for the power of administration which she produced, being perfectly mad at the time with rage and disappointment, and sure that if he stopped there any longer he should commit the crime of killing this woman who had deceived him so cruelly, he gave it that he might escape from her.

Their Majesties would notice also that it was in favour of the Marchioness of Morella.