“My heart did not deceive me.  I knew that thou wert a true man.  Jacob Dyson, listen to my words, and take good heed to them, and I will strive so to work that no harm shall befall thee, albeit I may not deny that thou mayest stand in some jeopardy.  Take and put on this long cloak that I carry beneath my arm; wrap it well about thee, and turn up its collar that it hide well thy face.  Pull thy hat down over thy eyes—­so.  And now take this ring and put it upon thy finger.  I have told thee where Cuthbert Trevlyn is lodged this night.  Go to the house and ask speech of Master Dibbler.  When thou seest him, show him that ring, and tell him that Esther, the wise woman, has sent thee with it, and that she desires him to let thee have a brief interview alone with his prisoner, who has something to say to thee for me of the utmost value to all.  Show not thy face, show only the ring, and unless I be greatly deceived, he will take thee to the prisoner forthwith, and lock thee up together alone.  The rest thou canst almost divine.  Thou must lose no time, but cut the cords that bind him, wrap him in this cloak—­ye are much of a height—­and so muffled he may well pass out in the darkness unheeded.  Thou must stay behind in the prison bound as he was bound.  In the morning thou wilt be given over to the officers of the law; for I misdoubt me much that Dibbler will ever find out the trick that has been played upon him.  He never saw Cuthbert Trevlyn before, and I trow he has scarce observed what manner of man he is.  He will deliver thee up for one Cuthbert Trevlyn, taken in the act of fleeing to the house where the conspirators are known to lodge.

“But I trow that thy father’s solid weight and Esther’s acuteness can soon serve to set thee at liberty.  It will be an easy task to show to all the world that thou art Jacob Dyson, a peaceable citizen, and that thou hast been wrongly apprehended in the place of another.  Thou wilt be able to prove that at the hour men say they found thee in that dark garden thou wast in thy father’s or thine uncle’s house.  Thy captors will be confused, enraged, bewildered, and will have to explain how they come to be striving to pass off Jacob Dyson as an evil doer.  I trow well we can turn the tables upon them.

“Art thou willing to run some small peril for the sake of serving one who has called thee friend?”

And Jacob, with scarce a moment’s pause, replied once again, “I am willing.”

Next day, the morning of the fifth of November, 1605, dawned clear and still and bright.  London was early astir; for was not the King to open his Parliament that day? and were not hundreds of loyal subjects going to line the streets to see the procession pass?  If the King were not popular, the Prince of Wales, Prince Henry, was; and a sight was a sight to the simple folk of those days, even as it is still.