sending the hot blood racing and surging through my being till I were like

to be consumed for the very heat of my happiness."

"Sh !" she whispered, suddenly, "methinks I hear footsteps. They must not

find thee here, Norman of Torn, for the King has only this night wrung a

promise from my father to take thee in the morning and hang thee. What

shall we do, Norman ? Where shall we meet again ?"

"We shall not be separated, Bertrade; only so long as it may take thee to

gather a few trinkets, and fetch thy riding cloak. Thou ridest north

tonight with Norman of Torn, and by the third day, Father Claude shall make

us one."

"I am glad thee wish it," she replied. "I feared that, for some reason,

thee might not think it best for me to go with thee now. Wait here, I will

be gone but a moment. If the footsteps I hear approach this door," and she

indicated the door by which he had entered the little room, "thou canst

step through this other doorway into the adjoining apartment, and conceal

thyself there until the danger passes."

Norman of Torn made a wry face, for he had no stomach for hiding himself

away from danger.

"For my sake," she pleaded. So he promised to do as she bid, and she ran

swiftly from the room to fetch her belongings.

CHAPTER XIX

When the little, grim, gray man had set the object covered with a cloth

upon the table in the center of the room and left the apartment, he did not

return to camp as Norman of Torn had ordered.

Instead, he halted immediately without the little door, which he left a

trifle ajar, and there he waited, listening to all that passed between

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