Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/302

Rh why should you deny it? except that priests always deny any truth."

"She is a prisoner, and a rebel; and you should not blaspheme." "Whose prisoner?"

"The king's, my son."

"The king's! Has he no prisons of his own, then, that he must borrow your convent?"

The Umbrian hesitated; he was sore afraid to answer the question, but he was more immediately afraid that his impetuous questioner should sweep his meal away again.

"Monsignore Villaflor is interested in her recovery to the One Faith, my son," he said, slowly and unwillingly.

"Giulio Villaflor!" The words leaped from his lips ere he knew they were spoken; the blood rushed into his face, his hands clenched; the name confirmed his worst horror, his worst dread. He knew the temper and the repute of the mighty Roman; he shivered where he stood in the hot sun. "What do you know of our holy father in God, my son?" Erceldoune turned his eyes full on him.

"What do you know?"

The other flushed shamefacedly; he was an