Chapter 20 - Page 2

pleasure!" answered Sir Piercie; "a goodly question after
the part you have acted towards me!--Young man, I know not what
infatuation has led thee to place thyself in direct and insolent
opposition to one who is a guest of thy liege-lord the Abbot, and who,
even from the courtesy due to thy mother's roof, had a right to remain
there without meeting insult. Neither do I ask, or care, by what means
thou hast become possessed of the fatal secret by which thou hast
dared to offer me open shame. But I must now tell thee, that the
possession of it has cost thee thy life."

"Not, I trust, if my hand and sword can defend it," replied Halbert,
boldly.

"True," said the Englishman, "I mean not to deprive thee of thy fair
chance of self-defence. I am only sorry to think, that, young and
country-bred as thou art, it can but little avail thee. But thou must
be well aware, that in this quarrel I shall use no terms of quarter."

"Rely on it, proud man," answered the youth, "that I shall ask none;
and although thou speakest as if I lay already at thy feet, trust me,
that as I am determined never to ask thy mercy, so I am not fearful of
needing it."

"Thou wilt, then," said the knight, "do nothing to avert the certain
fate which thou hast provoked with such wantonness?"

"And how were that to be purchased?" replied Halbert Glendinning, more
with the wish of obtaining some farther insight into the terms on
which he stood with this stranger, than to make him the submission
which he might require.

"Explain to me instantly," said Sir Piercie, "without equivocation or
delay, by what means thou wert enabled to wound my honour so
deeply--and shouldst thou point out to me by so doing an enemy more
worthy of my resentment, I will permit thine own obscure
insignificance to draw a veil over thine insolence."

"This is too high a flight," said Glendinning, fiercely, "for thine
own presumption to soar without being checked. Thou hast come to my
father's house, as well as I can guess, a fugitive and an exile, and
thy first greeting to its inhabitants has been that of contempt and
injury. By what means I have been able to retort that contempt, let
thine own conscience tell thee. Enough for me that I stand on the
privilege of a free Scotchman, and will brook no insult unreturned,
and no injury unrequited."

"It is well, then," said Sir Piercie Shafton; "we will dispute this
matter to-morrow morning with our swords. Let the time be daybreak,
and do thou assign the place. We will go forth as if to strike a
deer."

"Content," replied Halbert