"You infernal young jackanapes! I'll run you through in less than two minutes, if you don't tell me where you have taken her." The astonishment, not to say consternation, of Master Hubert for that small young gentleman and no other it was--on thus having his ideas thus shaken out of him, was unbounded, and held him perfectly speechless, while Sir Norman glared at him and shook him in a way that would have instantaneously killed him if his looks were lightning.

The boy had recognized his aggressor, and after his first galvanic shock, struggled like a little hero to free himself, and at last succeeded by an artful spring.
"Sir Norman Kingsley," he cried, keeping a safe yard or two of pavement between him and that infuriated young knight, "have you gone mad, or what, is Heaven's name, is the meaning of all this ?" "It means," exclaimed Sir Norman, drawing his sword, and flourishing it within an inch of the boy's curly head,--"that you'll be a dead page in less than half a minute, unless you tell me immediately where she has been taken to." "Where who has been taken to ?" inquired Hubert, opening his bright and indignant black eyes in a way that reminded Sir Norman forcibly of Leoline.

"Pardon, monsieur, I don't understand at all." "You young villain! Do you mean to stand up there and tell me to my face that you have not searched for her, and found her, and have carried her off ?" "Why, do you mean the lady we were talking of, that was saved from the river ?" asked Hubert, a new light dawning upon him.
"Do I mean the lady we were talking of ?" repeated Sir Norman, with another furious flourish of his sword.

"Yes, I do mean the lady we were talking of; and what's more--I mean to pin you where you stand, against that wall, unless you tell me, instantly, where she has been taken." "Monsieur!" exclaimed the boy, raising his hands with an earnestness there was no mistaking, "I do assure you, upon my honor, that I know nothing of the lady whatever; that I have not found her; that I have never set eyes on her since the earl saved her from the river." The earnest tone of truth would, in itself, almost have convinced Sir Norman, but it was not that, that made him drop his sword so suddenly.
The pale, startled face; the dark, solemn eyes, were so exactly like Leoline's, that they thrilled him through and through, and almost made him believe, for a moment, he was talking to Leoline herself.
"Are you--are you sure you are not Leoline ?" he inquired, almost convinced, for an instant, by the marvelous resemblance, that it was really so.
"I?
Positively, Sir Norman, I cannot understand this at all, unless you wish to enjoy yourself at my expense." "Look here, Master Hubert!" said Sir Norman with a sudden change of look and tone.

"If you do not understand, I shall just tell you in a word or two how matters are, and then let me hear you clear yourself.