‘I would not.’
‘For your disarming, you brought it on yourself.’
‘Would I had killed thine informer first.’
‘And so, with thy bloody sword, on me!’
Brion looked steadily into the eyes of him that spoke it.
‘O!’ he said softly: ‘not upon her son, but upon you, be charged that black unnatural thought.’
Leicester started ever so slightly, moved uneasily in his seat, looked away, and again at the upright figure before him.
‘Thou hast a bold spirit, boy,’ he said harshly.
‘Would I could trace it to a better source,’ answered Brion.
‘Thou——’ he looked for a moment as if he had received a blow; then again his expression changed. ‘Unbind him, Granton,’ he said.