“Wherefore, then, hath this cavalier, whoever he be, not been brought forward?” asked Lord Burleigh. “Hath no one any knowledge of him?”
“He is well known to Sir Walter Raleigh, my Lord,” replied Bernard.
“Ah!” said Burleigh, knitting his brows.
Bernard was silent.
“’Tis a most strange story,” resumed Burleigh, after a pause. “Could not this doughty cavalier, who slew one ruffian, arrest the other?”
“An’ that ruffian were produced, would the knight be set free, my Lord?” asked Bernard.
“Of a surety he would,” answered Burleigh.
“Then, my Lord, I am he,” said Bernard.
Lord Burleigh drew back. If he were displeased at Bernard’s audacity, his displeasure, in the first instance, was lost in his surprise; and, for once in his life, he was unprepared to express his sentiments. Nevertheless, he was too accustomed to restrain and repress his feelings, on occasions more trying than the present, to be thrown off his guard; and as he desired to meditate before he spoke with Bernard further, he determined to dismiss him till the following day.