He took a coin from his pocket and flung it on the floor. Waghorn, with an angry frown, pushed it from him.
“Thy money perish with thee! I want none of it. Nay, ’tis something more than money that I must have for the tidings. Promise to use me as the instrument of vengeance on this traitor.”
“Dost take me for a murderer hiring assassins?” said the Colonel, scornfully.
“I speak not of murder, but of bringing the ungodly and the traitorous to just punishment.”
“Well, I will use you if I can, but you must tell me more. Where is this Mr. Harford?”
“This very morning he yielded to the entreaty of the Vicar of Bosbury and spared the Popish cross in the churchyard. I vowed in my heart that he should suffer for that treachery, and, concealing myself, I heard all that passed later betwixt him and Mistress Hilary.”
“What did the fair lady say to him?”
“Why, she was just a second Eve, leading him on, and then the next minute sorely paining him; but methinks she hath a liking for him all the same, and left him some hope.”
“Hope of winning her?”
“That, doubtless, would follow: but what he urged on her was to walk warily with respect to you, sir.”