Forgetting himself and his own near fate, he looked at the court dress she wore, and a mere glance convinced him that it was not the one he had seen.
"But--" he was suddenly confused--"but why did you need to disguise yourself?
I left the Princess of Eboli with you, and I gave her permission to take you away to stay with her.

You needed no disguise." "I never saw her.

She must have found Inez in the room.

I was gone long before that." "Gone--where ?" Mendoza was fast losing the thread of it all--in his confusion of ideas he grasped the clue of his chief sorrow, which was far beyond any thought for himself.

"But if you are innocent--pray God you may be, as you say--how is it possible--oh, no! I cannot believe it--I cannot! No woman could do that--no innocent girl could stand out before a multitude of men and women, and say what you said--" "I hoped to save your life.