'By this time I had quite forgiven the loss of my dinner, and was not at all surprised when Bessie leant across me, with tears in her eyes, to say:
'"Oh, I'm so glad you did that! How proud you must feel of it. I would have given anything to have helped the Duke so."
'"It did him no good, poor gentleman," said the girl. "He was found, for all the pains we took to disguise him; and the King had him beheaded. Ah! well. I felt very sorry when I heard it first; for he was a kind gentleman, and a well-favoured. But I don't care now. He has brought so much trouble on us all, that I almost feel to hate him."
'"But he did not know. How could he guess that there would be all these dreadful executions? The King is responsible for them, not he," said Bessie, eager as ever in defence of her hero. "Besides he was fighting for his rights. Oh, I wish I had been able to do something for him!"
'"Don't talk to me of his rights!" said the girl fiercely. "If it had not been for him, I should have been at home and happy at this day; and so would you, and many another poor creature. Besides, what are his rights compared to all our lives, I should like to know?"
'"But surely, surely," cried I, "they can't punish you very much for merely giving him a loaf of bread?"
'"You don't know what you are talking of," she replied gloomily. "Haven't you heard enough about Judge Jeffreys since he has been in Taunton, to know that there is no punishment too hard for him to give, unless he is well paid to be merciful. You are ladies of quality: you will get off well enough, I warrant me; but I come of poor folk, and there is no greater crime than that in his eyes."
'I thought of what Mrs. Fortescue had said, and a chill crept over me. I sat quite silent all the rest of dinner-time, conjuring up all the dreadful stories I had heard from Ph[oe]be of Judge Jeffreys' cruelties. I thought of the men and women he had pilloried and flogged; of the twenty-nine men who were executed at Dorchester in a single day; of Mrs. Gaunt; of Lady Lisle; and of many another story too horrible to repeat to you, until I felt quite sick with fright. "What could be done to save Bessie from the hands of this wicked man?" I pondered vainly for some time; but suddenly a bright idea struck me, which I resolved to confide to Henrietta the moment dinner was over. I did not want Bessie to hear; so I felt rather glad that she went on talking to the pale girl, and allowed me to slip from her side after dinner without taking any notice. Then I pulled Henrietta away into a corner of the room, and poured out all my fears. That they were but too well founded, I saw directly from her face. She, too, had heard what Mrs. Fortescue told me of the fate of poor Sir Geoffrey Davenant. Bessie stood in real, terrible peril; there was no doubt about it. Henrietta trembled all over when she said this, but she begged me not to let Bessie know.
'"She must be saved," said Henrietta in a quick, agitated tone. "I don't know how; but, in some way or other, it shall be done."
'"Don't you think, Henrietta," I said, keeping my voice steady with great difficulty, "that if my father and mother are as rich as everybody says they are, they could pay the ransom for Bessie as well as for me? I could write and tell them all about it, and——"