“Do you call Lord Claud wicked?” asked Tom rather hotly.

“No,” was the quiet reply; “I judge no man; but I do say that worldly prosperity is no test of true merit.  The wicked may be fat and flourishing for long; but the Lord will avenge at the last.”

“But, father,” cried pretty Rosamund eagerly, “for what crimes were the poor young men hanged of whom you spoke just now?”

“Most of them suffered for the crime of robbery on the king’s highway.”

Tom again flushed rather deeply.  He had heard hints and innuendoes before this, and his wits were beginning now to piece things together.  He was angry, yet he scarce knew why.

“Do you mean to say, Master Cale,” he asked, “that men accuse Lord Claud of being the accomplice of highwaymen and footpads?”

And then he himself remembered the words of the message with which Captain Jack had entrusted him, and a strange thrill seemed to run down his spine.

“Men say nought of him openly,” answered Cale, “but they whisper among themselves.  For my part, I know nothing of Lord Claud and his doings.  But I know that there have been marvellous clever and daring deeds done upon the road; that the king’s money chests have been rifled again and again of gold, transmitted by the Treasury for the pay of the soldiers in foreign lands, and that none of the gold has ever been recovered.  Now and again an obscure person has been captured, and has suffered death for complicity in such a crime; and it has been told me that several of such have been stalwart and stanch youths, who had at one time been seen frequenting Lord Claud’s lodgings, much noticed and petted by him.  What truth there be in such talk I know not.  Nor have I any desire to know.  A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing; and the voice of rumour is but little to be trusted.”

“Very little, I should think,” answered Tom quickly; for he had already conceived a great attachment towards Lord Claud, and it irked him to think that men should speak of him as one who was a false friend, and the accomplice in crimes for which others suffered whilst he reaped the spoil.

A man, especially in his hot-headed youth, seldom believes what he has no mind to; and Tom certainly had no disposition to believe any harm of Lord Claud.

So the talk drifted to other channels, and when presently Rosamund declared with pretty insistence that she must not be cheated of her walk abroad in the streets.  Tom asked if he might make one of the party without intruding; and the bright eyes of the girl gave eloquent answer.

So they sallied forth together, and Master Cale played cicerone, and showed Tom many strange and wonderful things, telling him absorbing stories the while.  He showed him the limits of the ravages of the Great Fire, which he could remember well, as he was ten years old at the time.  He took them into many of the churches afterwards built by Wren, and Tom stood lost in amaze at the magnificent proportions of the great St. Paul’s, the inside of which he had not seen till today.  He was shown also the site of one of the Great Plague pits; and Rosamund clung trembling, yet fascinated, to her father’s arm whilst he spoke of the things that had happened in those gruesome days.