My Lord, pardon me--Italians sometimes invent what they wish.

On the honour of a knight of the Empire, these tidings are the naked truth ?" "By my honour, and on the Cross," answered Adrian, drawing himself up; "and in proof thereof, I am now bound to Naples to settle with the Queen the preliminaries of the appointed trial." "Two crowned heads before the tribunal of a plebeian, and one a defendant against the charge of murther!" muttered Montreal; "the news might well amaze me!" He remained musing and silent a little while, till looking up, he caught Adeline's tender gaze fixed upon him with that deep solicitude with which she watched the outward effect of schemes and projects she was too soft to desire to know, and too innocent to share.
"Lady mine," said the Provencal, fondly, "how sayest thou?
must we abandon our mountain castle, and these wild woodland scenes, for the dull walls of a city?
I fear me so .-- The Lady Adeline," he continued, turning to Adrian, "is of a singular bias; she hates the gay crowds of streets and thoroughfares, and esteems no palace like the solitary outlaw's hold.

Yet, methinks, she might outshine all the faces of Italy,--thy mistress, Lord Adrian, of course, excepted." "It is an exception which only a lover, and that too a betrothed lover, would dare to make," replied Adrian, gallantly.
"Nay," said Adeline, in a voice singularly sweet and clear, "nay, I know well at what price to value my lord's flattery, and Signor di Castello's courtesy.

But you are bound, Sir Knight, to a court, that, if fame speak true, boasts in its Queen the very miracle and mould of beauty." "It is some years since I saw the Queen of Naples," answered Adrian; "and I little dreamed then, when I gazed upon that angel face, that I should live to hear her accused of the foulest murther that ever stained even Italian royalty." "And, as if resolved to prove her guilt," said Montreal, "ere long be sure she will marry the very man who did the deed.

Of this I have certain proof." Thus conversing, the Knights wore away the daylight, and beheld from the open tent the sun cast his setting glow over the purple sea.