"It is not fit for me to argue with your Highness," replied Bianca;
"but perhaps the questions I should have put to him would have been
more to the purpose than those you have been pleased to ask him."

"Oh! no doubt," said Matilda; "you are a very discreet personage!
May I know what YOU would have asked him?"

"A bystander often sees more of the game than those that play,"
answered Bianca. "Does your Highness think, Madam, that this
question about my Lady Isabella was the result of mere curiosity?
No, no, Madam, there is more in it than you great folks are aware
of. Lopez told me that all the servants believe this young fellow
contrived my Lady Isabella's escape; now, pray, Madam, observe you
and I both know that my Lady Isabella never much fancied the Prince
your brother. Well! he is killed just in a critical minute--I
accuse nobody. A helmet falls from the moon--so, my Lord, your
father says; but Lopez and all the servants say that this young
spark is a magician, and stole it from Alfonso's tomb--"

"Have done with this rhapsody of impertinence," said Matilda.

"Nay, Madam, as you please," cried Bianca; "yet it is very
particular though, that my Lady Isabella should be missing the very
same day, and that this young sorcerer should be found at the mouth
of the trap-door. I accuse nobody; but if my young Lord came
honestly by his death--"

"Dare not on thy duty," said Matilda, "to breathe a suspicion on
the purity of my dear Isabella's fame."