“True,” replied the other.  “I have delayed it for several reasons, but chiefly because I would have it complete.  The work is begun, and its final accomplishment will not be long postponed.  I will not destroy him till I have destroyed the superstructure on which he has built his fortunes—­till all has crumbled beneath him—­and he is beggared and dishonoured.  I have begun the work, I say.  Look here!” he cried, taking a parchment from his doublet.  “You would give much for this deed, Sir Jocelyn.  This makes me lord of a large property in Norfolk, with which you are well acquainted.”

“You cannot mean the Mounchensey estates?” cried Sir Jocelyn.  “Yet now I look at the instrument, it is so.”

“I obtained this assignment by stratagem,” said the promoter; “and I have thereby deprived Sir Giles of the most valuable portion of his spoils; and though; he thinks to win it back again, he will find himself deceived.  My measures are too well taken.  This is the chief prop of the fabric it has taken him so long to rear, and ere long I will shake it wholly in pieces.”

“But if you have become unlawfully possessed of this property, as would appear to be the case by your own showing, you cannot hope to retain it,” said the young knight.

“Trust me, Sir Jocelyn, I shall prove a better title to it than Sir Giles could exhibit,” rejoined Lanyere; “but this is not a time for full explanation.  If I carry out my schemes, you will not be the last person benefited by them.”

“Again, I ask you, what possible interest you can feel in me?” demanded the young knight with curiosity.

“Next to myself, you have been most injured by Sir Giles, and even more than myself are you an object of dislike to him.  These would suffice to excite my sympathy towards you; but I have other and stronger reasons for my friendly feeling towards you, which in due season you shall know.”

“All your proceedings are mysterious,” observed Sir Jocelyn.

“They must needs be so from the circumstances in which I am placed.  I am compelled to veil them as I do my hateful features from the prying eyes of men:  but they will be made clear anon, and you will then understand me and my motives better.  Ha! what is this?” he suddenly exclaimed, as a noise outside attracted his attention.  “Fly! fly! there is danger.”

But the warning was too late.  Ere the young man, who stood irresolute, could effect his retreat from the back of the cottage, the door was thrown open, and a serjeant-at-arms, with three attendants in black gowns and flat caps, and having black staves in their hands, entered the room.

Sir Jocelyn had partly drawn his sword, but restored it to the scabbard on a glance from Lanyere.

“Resistance must not be offered,” said the latter, in a low tone.  “You will only make a bad matter worse.”

The serjeant-at-arms, a tall, thin man, with a sinister aspect, advanced towards the young knight, and touching him with his wand, said—­“I attach your person, Sir Jocelyn Mounchensey, in virtue of a warrant, which I hold from the High Court of Star-Chamber.”