'"Indeed!" said Lady Sarah dryly. "And when you have given Her Majesty your instructions, and she has perchance followed your advice, and had you turned out of the Palace for a malapert rogue, pray what becomes of my Lady Desmond and your promise to her mother?"
'I stamped my foot on the ground with a sort of impatient despair as I thought of Frances, sick and lonely, and of Lady Dalrymple's face of misery when she implored my help.
'"What am I to do?" I muttered half-aloud, clenching my fists with a most gentlemanlike desire to knock Lady Sarah down.
'"Listen to me," she replied quietly, "and perhaps I shall be able to devise some means for getting you out of your trouble."
'I stared at the lady incredulously. Decidedly she was the very last person I should have thought likely to help me. Besides the rough treatment she had received at my hands this very evening, which had, as I thought, made her my enemy for ever, was she not one of the very maids of honour who were to profit by the ransom of the Taunton girls? A very odd smile hovered in the corners of Lady Sarah's mouth as she watched my face.
'"I daresay you would not have chosen me for a confidante," she went on; "but you cannot help yourself now, so you must attend to me. Unclench your hand, and don't look so furious, or I shall be afraid to stay in the room with you. I have felt enough of your strength to-night, sir, to desire no further exhibition of it."
'Lady Sarah glanced at a bruise on her wrist as she spoke; and I, feeling thoroughly ashamed of myself, could only turn very red and endeavour to stammer out an apology.
'"There, never mind that now," she proceeded. "What I want you to understand is this. Though I care nothing for what becomes of those boys (and I see you think me very hard-hearted for saying so), yet I am not quite so relentless as you doubtless imagine. I wish to save you from the consequences of your own folly. You are not like Hal Verney, who is always planning escapades of this kind for the sake of the intrigue, and the excitement; nor like Philip and Roger, who would engage in anything that promised them a frolic. You had some reason for joining in this wild scheme, ill-advised as it was, and therefore I will do my best to help you. My brother Philip is to ride to-morrow in the train of the Princess Anne, who goes to pay my Lord of Rochester a visit. You shall go in his place. The Princess will be away from Court nearly a week, and by that time this affair will have blown over. In the meantime I shall tell the Queen that there were but three of you who pursued me in mistake for Father Niccolo. She need never know of your being there at all; for she had no time to see how many of you were in the chapel, and the good father will not be able to inform her, for he scarcely knows one of you from the other, and certainly not you, you obstinate little heretic, who keep so carefully aloof from him. I will take care that Philip does not betray you; and I suppose you may safely count on the honour of Roger and Hal. Is it not so?"
'"Madam, you are very good," I stammered out, after a pause of extreme astonishment. "But, but—how can I possibly put myself in safety, while the others are left in the lurch? They would never betray me, I know that; but that is the very reason! Oh, it is impossible that I should leave them!"
'"Foolish boy, what good can your staying be to them? I can take care of my own brother, I suppose; and as to the rest, they will get no more than they deserve. Besides," Lady Sarah went on, speaking low, and very eagerly, "you must see that, if the Queen once discovers that you were mixed up in this business, you lose all chance of prospering in your suit. Whereas, if you keep your own counsel, deny all knowledge of the affair, and follow out my directions, I'll wager anything you like that your part in the doings of to-night never comes to the Queen's ears at all. Then you come back in a week's time, when Her Majesty has forgotten the misbehaviour of her pages. You present your petition, tell the touching story of your bride's imprisonment, and carry your point with flying colours."