One steady and inquiring glance she was seen to fix upon the prisoner, and then she bent in homage to the Sovereign; and emotion, if there were any, passed unseen.
"Sit, lady," said the King, with ready courtesy, touched more than he could have imagined possible, by the change fourteen short days had wrought.

"We would feign render this compelled summons as brief and little fatiguing as may be: none can grieve more than ourselves at this harsh intrusion on thy hours of sorrow; but in a great measure the doom of life or death rests with thee, and justice forbids our neglecting evidence so important.

Yet sit, lady; we command it." "It needs not, gracious Sovereign; my strength will not fail me," replied Marie, her sweet voice falling distinctly on every ear, while Stanley started at its calmness; and she gracefully refused the seat Don Felix proffered.

"Give no more thought to me than to any other witness; it is not a subject's place to sit in presence of her Sovereign." But Ferdinand's kindliest feelings were excited, and instead of permitting the Sub-Prior to give the necessary details, he himself, with characteristic brevity, but clearly and kindly, narrated the progress of the evidence for and against the prisoner, and how great the weight laid on the proofs, if there were any, of acknowledged enmity, and premeditated injury, on the part of the accused towards the deceased.

The questions to which he was compelled to request her reply were simply, "Was she aware of any cause of hatred existing between the accused and the deceased ?" "Had she ever heard opprobrious and insulting epithets used by the former or the latter ?" "or any threat, implying that the death of Don Ferdinand Morales was desired by the prisoner ?" "Had she ever seen the prisoner draw his sword upon the deceased ?--and had she any reason to believe that Don Ferdinand had ever refused, or intended to refuse to meet the prisoner in honorable combat, and so urged the gratification of vengeance by a deed of murder?
Reverend Father," continued the King, "be pleased yourself to administer the customary oath." Father Francis instantly rose from his seat, and taking the large and richly embossed silver crucifix from the Monk, who had administered the oath to all the other witnesses, himself approached Marie.