Hurrying forward, with extended hands, he warmly saluted the Treasurer, yet the anxiety which had prompted this early morning call found immediate utterance in the first words he spoke.
"Your boys, Mr. Treasurer, are they doing well?"
"Dr. Barnes has just left them, your Excellency, and his report is altogether favourable; they have many serious flesh wounds, yet, by the mercy of God, no vital injury has been inflicted; and, if nothing unforeseen occurs, they will make a rapid recovery to health."
"They are noble boys!" cried the Ambassador, with enthusiasm. "They saved my son's life at the peril of their own, and with a manly daring which moves all men to admiration. London is ringing with their praises to-day; they are the heroes of the hour!"
Then Don Diego intervened with an eager request that he might visit the sick-room.
"It may not be, young sir," said Sir John. "You know they have a masterful young nurse in Mistress Susan Jefferay, and I myself have just been refused an interview with the boys by their stern guardian; they are to be kept in absolute quiet, she says, or Dr. Barnes will not answer for the consequences."
So the visitors took their departure, Diego obtaining permission to return to Gray's Inn in the evening.
Throughout that day visitors poured in at the Treasurer's lodgings with eager inquiries respecting the lads whose deed of daring had become public property from the moment when the Queen's guardship came to their rescue.
To many of these visitors the lads were unknown personally, though their handsome faces and strongly knit bodies had attracted much observation in Gray's Inn and its neighbourhood.
But Sir John was one of the leading men of the day; not only was he known to be a great lawyer, but he sat in Queen Mary's Parliament as a member for the City of London, and was fast becoming a strong leader among the members of the House who were silently ranging themselves as partisans of the young Princess Elizabeth.