“I’m going,” he repeated. “Rachel needn’t come unless she wants to.”

The Palmer received the boon with another low reverence, and followed Edwina out of the apartment.

"Undress him! What are you waiting for?" he cried angrily to the dressers.

"I answer not the challenge of my prisoner," said Front-de-Boeuf; "nor shalt thou, Maurice de Bracy.---Giles," he continued, "hang the franklin's glove upon the tine of yonder branched antlers: there shall it remain until he is a free man. Should he then presume to demand it, or to affirm he was unlawfully made my prisoner, by the belt of Saint Christopher, he will speak to one who hath never refused to meet a foe on foot or on horseback, alone or with his vassals at his back!"