"Didst say William Tyndale, here, in the city?" Herman asked, in simulated surprise. "You mean that English fellow who, they say, is come to this country to get his Bible printed?"
The men stared at him in equal surprise.
"Dost mean to say, Herman, that you do not know that it has been common talk in the city that he was hiding somewhere here? Cochlaeus was so sure about it, that every printer's shop has been searched, although he declared his conviction that the real culprit was Master Byrckmann, who is to be your father-in-law some day, so they say."
The wardens laughed, but Herman put on a look of supreme contempt for such an absurd charge against Margaret's father.
"I have been away so much of late," he explained. "And so many things happen in a short time. Have they found Tyndale?"
"That's just where the fun comes in," said the chief warden, his face, like his underlings', all smiles.
Before he said more, he looked about him in all directions; then he dropped his voice so low that the others could scarcely hear him.
"The Englishman was here without a doubt. I saw him. So did each of these. But not one of us would tell of him, although there was a price on his head; for who would sell a man to those tormentors? The poor man lodged somewhere, nobody knows where, and when night fell he used to come into the streets for an airing. But let that pass. I can tell you something more."
The warden paused to look about him again.
"Cochlaeus came back a few hours since, more like a madman than a reverend father of the Church, and his face was not pleasant to see. He had not passed the gate long before it got to be known that he had found that Tyndale really was in the city, and went away in a ship. He, and the City Guard, tracked him into Schouts' castle, up the river, and that saintly minded robber lord was ready to sell the Englishman for a thousand golden crowns. And how do you think the matter was settled?" said the chief warden, with a chuckle. "When the bargain was struck, and they went into the dungeon for Cochlaeus to claim his purchase, William Tyndale was gone!"