Yes, she was gone; and Sir Norman turned for a moment so sick with utter dread, that he leaned against one of the tall carved posts, and hated himself for having left her with a heartlessness that his worst enemy could not have surpassed.Then aroused into new and spasmodic energy by the exigency of the case, he seized the lamp, and going out to the hall, made the house ring from basement to attic with her name.No reply, but that hollow, melancholy echo that sounds so lugubriously through empty houses, was returned; and he jumped down stairs with an impetuous rush, flinging back every door in the hall below with a crash, and flying wildly from room to room.In solemn grim repose they lay;but none of them held the bright figure in rose-satin he sought.
And he left them in despair, and went back to her chamber again.
"Leoline! Leoline! Leoline!" he called, while he rushed impetuously ap stairs, and down stairs, and in my lady's chamber;but Leoline answered not - perhaps never would answer more! Even "hoping against hope," he had to give up the chase at last - no Leoline did that house hold; and with this conviction despairingly impressed on leis mind, Sir Norman Kingsley covered his face with his hands, and uttered a dismal groan.
Yet, forlorn as was the case, he groaned but once, "only that and nothing more;" there was no time for such small luxuries as groaning and tearing his hair, and boiling over with wrath and vengeance against the human race generally, and those two diabolical specimens of it, the Earl of Rochester and Count L'Estrange, particularly.He plunged head foremost down stairs, and out of the door.There he was impetuously brought up all standing; for somebody stood before it, gazing up at the gloomy front with as much earnestness as he had done himself, and against this individual he rushed recklessly with a shock that nearly sent the pair of them over into the street.
"Sacr-r-re!" cried a shrill voice, in tones of indignant remonstrance."What do you mean, monsieur? Are you drunk, or crazy, that you come running head foremost into peaceable citizens, and throwing them heels uppermost on the king's highway! Stand off, sir! And think yourself lucky that I don't run you through with my dirk for such an insult!"At the first sound of the outraged treble tones, Sir Norman had started back and glared upon the speaker with much the same expression of countenance as an incensed tiger.The orator of the spirited address had stooped to pick up his plumed cap, and recover his centre of gravity, which was considerably knocked out of place by the unexpected collision, and held forth with very flashing eyes, and altogether too angry to recognize his auditor.
Sir Norman waited until he had done, and then springing at him, grabbed him by the collar.
"You young hound!" he exclaimed, fairly lifting him off his feet with one hand, and shaking him as if he would have wriggled him out of hose and doublet."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 moaning 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 lees 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.You know the lady we were talking about, that Lord Rochester picked up afloat, and sent you in search of?""Yes - yes."
