'Mistress Amanda Fuller,' said his lordship with awful severity,
'thou hast in thy possession a jewel which is not thine own.'
'A jewel, my lord?' faltered Amanda, betaking herself by the force
of inborn propensity and habit, even when hopeless of success in
concealment, to the falsehood she carried with her like an
atmosphere; 'I know not what your lordship means. Of what sort is
the jewel?'
'One very like this,' returned lord Herbert, producing the false
ring.
'Why, there you have it, my lord!'
'Traitress to thy king and thy lord, out of thine own mouth have I
convicted thee. This is not the ring. See!'
As he spoke he squeezed it betwixt his finger and thumb to a
shapeless mass, and threw it from him--then continued:
'Thou art she who did show the rebel his way from the prison into
which her lord had cast him.'
'He took me by the throat, my lord,' gasped Amanda, 'and put me in
mortal terror.'
'Thou slanderest him,' returned lord Herbert. 'The roundhead is a
gentleman, and would not, to save his life, have harmed thee, even
had he known what a worthless thing thou art.
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