‘You wrong me grievously, my lord,’ cried mistress Watson, red with the wrath of injury and undeserved reproof.

’Thou hast thyself to thank for it then, for thou hast this night said in mine own ears that mistress Dorothy waked thy prisoner, importing that she thereafter set him free, when thou knowest that she denies the same, and is therein believed by my lord marquis and all his house.’

’Therein I believe her not, my lord; but I swear by all the saints and angels, that to none but your lordship have I ever said the word; neither have I ever opened my lips against her, lest I should take from her the chance of betterment.’

’I will be more just to thee than thou hast been to my cousin, mistress Watson, for I will believe thee that thou didst only harbour evil in thy heart, not send it from the doors of thy lips to enter into other bosoms.  Was it thou then that did lock the door upon her?’

‘God forbid, my lord!’

‘Thinkest thou. it was the roundhead?’

‘No, surely, my lord, for where would be the need?’

‘Lest she should issue and give the alarm.’

Mistress Watson smiled an acid smile.

‘Then the doer of that evil deed,’ pursued lord Herbert, ’must be now in the castle, and from this moment every power I possess in earth, air, or sea, shall be taxed to the uttermost for the discovery of that evil person.  Let this vow of mine be known, mistress Watson, as a thing thou hast heard me say, not commission thee to report.  Prithee take heed to what I desire of thee, for I am not altogether powerless to enforce that I would.’

Mistress Watson left the workshop in humbled mood.  To her spiritual benefit lord Herbert had succeeded in punishing her for her cruelty to Dorothy; and she was not the less willing to mind his injunction as to the mode of mentioning his intent, that it would serve to the quenching of any suspicion that she had come under his disapproval.

And now lord Herbert, depending more upon his wits than his learning, found himself a good deal in the dark.  Confident that neither Richard, Tom Fool, nor mistress Watson had locked the door of the turret chamber after Dorothy’s entrance, he gave one moment to the examination of the lock, and was satisfied that an enemy had done it.  He then started his thoughts on another track, tending towards the same point:  how was it that the roundhead, who had been carried insensible to the turret-chamber, had been able, ere yet more than a film of grey thinned the darkness, without alarming a single sleeper, to find his way from a part of the house where there were no stairs near, and many rooms, all occupied?  Clearly by the help of her, whoever she was, whom Tom Fool had seen with him by the hall door.  She had guided him down my lord’s stair, and thus avoided the risk of crossing the paved court to the hall door within sight of the warders of the main entrance.  To her indubitably the young roundhead