‘Hold, sir! that’s no news,’ interrupted the marquis.  ’Go on with your business.’

‘My lord,’ said the doctor, ’there is one comfort yet, that, as the king is brought low, so are his demands, and, like his army, are come down from thousands to hundreds, and from paying the soldiers of his army to buying bread for himself and his followers.  My lord, it is the king’s own expression, and his desire is but three hundred pound.’

Lord Worcester remained a long time silent, and Dr. Bayly waited, ’knowing by experience that in such cases it was best leaving him to himself, and to let that nature that was so good work itself into an act of the highest charity, like the diamond which is only polished with its own dust.’

‘Come hither—­come nearer, my good doctor,’ said his lordship at length:  ’hath the king himself spoken unto thee concerning any such business?’

’The king himself hath not, my lord, but others did, in the king’s hearing.’

‘Might I but speak unto him—­,’ said the marquis.  ’But I was never thought worthy to be consulted with, though in matters merely concerning the affairs of my own country!—­I would supply his wants, were they never so great, or whatsoever they were.’

’If the king knew as much, my lord, you might quickly speak with him,’ remarked the doctor.

’The way to have him know so much is to have somebody to tell him of it,’ said the marquis testily.

‘Will your lordship give me leave to be the informer?’ asked the doctor.

‘Truly I spake it to the purpose,’ answered the marquis.

Away ran the little doctor, ambling through the picture-gallery, ‘half going and half running,’ like some short-winged bird—­his heart trembling lest the marquis should change his mind and call him back, and so his pride in his successful mediation be mortified—­to the king’s chamber, where he told his majesty with diplomatic reserve, and something of diplomatic cunning, enhancing the difficulties, that he had perceived his lordship desired some conference with him, and that he believed, if the king granted such conference, he would find a more generous response to his necessities than perhaps he expected.  The king readily consenting, the doctor went on to say that his lordship much wished the interview that very night.  The king asked how it could be managed, and the doctor told him the marquis had contrived it before his majesty came to the castle, having for that reason appointed the place where they were for his bed-chamber, and not that in the great tower, which the marquis himself liked the best in the castle.

‘I know my lord’s drift well enough,’ said the king, smiling:  ’either he means to chide me, or else to convert me to his religion.’

‘I doubt not, sire,’ returned the doctor, ’but your majesty is temptation-proof as well as correction-free, and will return the same man you go, having made a profitable exchange of gold and silver for words and sleep.’