“Where am I?  At Windsor.  And you?  In Southwark.  Alas! this is the first time that there has been distance between us.  Who has dug this gulf?  I here, thou there.  Oh, it cannot be; it shall not be!  What is this that they have done to me?”

He stopped.

“Who talked to me of the queen?  What do I know of such things? I changed!  Why?  Because I am a lord.  Do you know what has happened, Dea?  You are a lady.  What has come to pass is astounding.  My business now is to get back into my right road.  Who is it who led me astray?  There is a man who spoke to me mysteriously.  I remember the words which he addressed to me.  ’My lord, when one door opens another is shut.  That which you have left behind is no longer yours.’  In other words, you are a coward.  That man, the miserable wretch! said that to me before I was well awake.  He took advantage of my first moment of astonishment.  I was as it were a prey to him.  Where is he, that I may insult him?  He spoke to me with the evil smile of a demon.  But see—­I am myself again.  That is well.  They deceive themselves if they think that they can do what they like with Lord Clancharlie, a peer of England.  Yes, with a peeress, who is Dea!  Conditions!  Shall I accept them?  The queen!  What is the queen to me?  I never saw her.  I am not a lord to be made a slave.  I enter my position unfettered.  Did they think they had unchained me for nothing?  They have unmuzzled me.  That is all.  Dea!  Ursus! we are together.  That which you were, I was; that which I am, you are.  Come.  No.  I will go to you directly—­directly.  I have already waited too long.  What can they think, not seeing me return!  That money.  When I think I sent them that money!  It was myself that they wanted.  I remember the man said that I could not leave this place.  We shall see that.  Come! a carriage, a carriage! put to the horses.  I am going to look for them.  Where are the servants?  I ought to have servants here, since I am a lord.  I am master here.  This is my house.  I will twist off the bolts, I will break the locks, I will kick down the doors, I will run my sword through the body of any one who bars my passage.  I should like to see who shall stop me.  I have a wife, and she is Dea.  I have a father, who is Ursus.  My house is a palace, and I give it to Ursus.  My name is a diadem, and I give it to Dea.  Quick, directly, Dea, I am coming; yes, you may be sure that I shall soon stride across the intervening space!”

And raising the first piece of tapestry he came to, he rushed from the chamber impetuously.

He found himself in a corridor.

He went straight forward.

A second corridor opened out before him.

All the doors were open.

He walked on at random, from chamber to chamber, from passage to passage, seeking an exit.

CHAPTER II.

THE RESEMBLANCE OF A PALACE TO A WOOD.