“Thou wert, then, particularly dear to that trait——, I would say Abbot?” said the governor, who throughout showed a desire to spare the prisoner’s feelings, and was evidently discharging a painful task from a sense of duty.[37]
“I was dear to him,” said Cuthbert, “but so were all his children.”
“But he trusted not all as he trusted thee?”
“I am not a fair judge of that.”
“He revealed his secrets to thee, I am told.”
“He would hardly make a mere boy the depository of many secrets; I was hardly fourteen at his martyrdom.”
The officials all looked at each other as the last word was pronounced, and the governor said mildly—
“‘Execution,’ thou would’st say, but we will not dispute the subject,—dost thou remember the day when thou didst gain a silver arrow at an archery contest?”
“I gained more prizes than one.”