Some little ray of consolation I culled, perhaps,
from my thoughts of Roxalanne. Out of the gloom of my cell my fancy
fashioned her sweet girl face and stamped it with a look of gentle
pity, of infinite sorrow for me and for the hand she had had in
bringing me to this.
That she loved me I was assured, and I swore that if I lived I would
win her yet, in spite of every obstacle that I myself had raised for
my undoing.
CHAPTER XII
THE TRIBUNAL OF TOULOUSE
I had hoped to lie some days in prison before being brought to
trial, and that during those days Castelroux might have succeeded
in discovering those who could witness to my identity. Conceive,
therefore, something of my dismay when on the morrow I was summoned
an hour before noon to go present myself to my judges.
From the prison to the Palace I was taken in chains like any thief
--for the law demanded this indignity to be borne by one charged
with the crimes they imputed to me. The distance was but short, yet
I found it over-long, which is not wonderful considering that the
people stopped to line up as I went by and to cast upon me a shower
of opprobrious derision - for Toulouse was a very faithful and loyal
city. It was within some two hundred yards of the Palace steps that
I suddenly beheld a face in the crowd, at the sight of which I stood
still in my amazement. This earned me a stab in the back from the
butt-end of the pike of one of my guards.
"What ails you now?" quoth the man irritably.
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