"I am a maid, ma'am," she said in a whisper.
"Cover yourself warm, my lamb, I'll twist him," said the delighted
mother. She went quickly to the door.
"May our lord the holy Pope of Rome find you mercy, father," she
vowed, "but you'll find none here. The girl has testified against you.
Now will you marry 'em?"
"That I will not, by our Lord," replied the friar.
"There's infamy abroad, and I'll leave it, for it's none of my making.
I wish you good-night, mistress. Bid your son to the Black Brothers.
Saint Dominic may deal with him. Saint Francis was a clean man, and so
must we be clean."
"Then get ye clean tongues lest ye lick others foul, ye brown viper,"
screamed Mrs. Ursula, as he splashed down the kennel.
Isoult was desperate; but luck pointed her one road yet. You will
remember the trinkets round her neck: Prosper's ring was one, the
other was that which old Mald had felt for and found safe in her bosom
on her wedding night. When, therefore, Mrs. Ursula came bridling into
the light full of her recent victory, she saw the girl before her
trembling, and holding out a gold chain at a stretch.
"Lord's name, child, you'll catch your death," cried she. "Slip on
your night-gown and into the bed."
"Trust her now, trust her now," went Isoult's wild heart. "Not yet,
mother," said she, "you must hear me now."
Ursula dropped into a chair. Isoult knelt before her and put the ring
in her old hand.
"Mother, look at this ring," she began, out of breath already, "and
look at me, and then let me go. For with this ring I was wed a year
ago to a certain lord whom I love dearly, and to whom I have never yet
come as a wife. So what I told you was true, and what the Grey Friar
told you was true also, when he said that I was a wife of his wedding.
He wed me to my lord sure and fast to save me from a hanging; but not
for love of me was I taken by my husband, and not for desire of his to
mate his soul to mine. But for love of the love I bore him I dared not
let him come, even when he would have come. We have been a year
wedded, and many days and nights we have wandered the forest and dwelt
together here and there, until now by some fate we are put apart. But
I know we shall come together again, and he whom I love so bitterly
shall set the ring in its place again where he first put it, and
himself lie where now it lies. And so the wound and the pain I have
shall be at last assuaged, and, Love, who had struck me so deep, shall
crown me."