IV

It was a minute or two before either spoke.  The girl read the paper twice through, holding it close to the little hand-lamp that stood on the table.

“You see, mistress,” he said, “it is as bad as it can be.”

She handed back the paper to him; he slid out his spectacles, put them on, and held the writing to the light.

“Here are the points, you see ...” he went on.  “I have annotated them in the margin.  First, that Thomas FitzHerbert be released from Derby gaol within three days from the leaving of Topcliffe for London, and that he be no more troubled, neither in fines nor imprisonment; next, that he have secured to him, so far as the laws shall permit, all his inheritance from Sir Thomas, from his father, and from any other bequests whether of his blood-relations or no; thirdly, that Topcliffe do ‘persecute to the death’”—­(the lawyer paused, cast a glance at the downcast face of the girl) “‘—­do persecute to the death’ his uncle Sir Thomas, his father John, and William Bassett his kinsman; and, in return for all this, Thomas FitzHerbert shall become her Grace’s sworn servant—­that is, Mistress Manners, her Grace’s spy, pursuivant, informer and what-not—­and that he shall grant and secure to Richard Topcliffe, Esquire, and to his heirs for ever, ’the manors of Over Padley and Nether Padley, on the Derwent, with six messuages, two cottages, ten gardens, ten orchards, a thousand acres of land, five hundred acres of meadow-land, six hundred acres of pasture, three hundred acres of wood, a thousand acres of furze and heath, in Padley, Grindleford and Lyham, in the parish of Hathersage, in consideration of eight hundred marks of silver, to be paid to Thomas FitzHerbert, Esquire, etc.’”

The lawyer put the paper down, and pushed his spectacles on to his forehead.

“That is a legal instrument?” asked the girl quietly, still with downcast eyes.

“It is not yet fully completed, but it is signed and witnessed.  It can become a legal instrument by Topcliffe’s act; and it would pass muster—­”

“It is signed by Mr. Thomas?”

He nodded.

She was silent again.  He began to tell her of how he had obtained it, and of George’s subtlety and good fortune; but she seemed to pay no attention.  She sat perfectly still.  When he had ended, she spoke again.

“A sworn servant of her Grace—­” she began.

“Topcliffe is a sworn servant of her Grace,” he said bitterly; “you may judge by that what Thomas FitzHerbert hath become.”

“We shall have his hand, too, against us all, then?”

“Yes, mistress; and, what is worse, this paper I take it—­” (he tapped it) “this paper is to be a secret for the present.  Mr. Thomas will still feign himself to be a Catholic, with Catholics, until he comes into all his inheritances.  And, meantime, he will supply information to his new masters.”