"Go, Edmond, and guard the passage," said Sir John Grey; "I will call when you are wanted.--Now, sir, will you speak?"
"Ay," answered Dyram, as he saw the man depart, and the door close; "I will, sir knight. First, I will speak to you, Richard of Woodville, and will tell you that I have the power to sweep away every cloud that has fallen upon you, or to make them darker still.--I know all: you need tell me nothing;--how you refused to serve your own monarch, they say; how you wrote to aid in bribing Sir Thomas Grey; how you have followed the English camp like a raven smelling the carrion of war--all, all--I know all!"
"Then clear up all!" answered Woodville; "and you shall have pardon."
"Pardon!" cried Dyram, with a mocking laugh; and then suddenly turning to Sir Harry Dacre, he went on. "Next, to you I will speak, sir doleful knight, and tell you, that from your fair fame, too, I can clear away the stain that hangs upon it--black and indelible as you think it. I can take out the mark of Cain, and give you back to peace and happiness."
Sir Harry Dacre gazed upon him for a moment in stern silence, and then replied, "I doubt it."
"Doubt not," replied Ned Dyram. "I can do it, I will; but upon my own conditions."
"What may they be?" asked Sir John Grey. "If they be reasonable, such information as you may proffer may be worth its price. But, remember, before you speak, that your neck is in a halter, and that this paper conveys you to the provost, and the provost to the next tree, if your demands be insolent."
"I am not sure of that," replied Ned Dyram, boldly. "Sir John Grey is not King in the camp. What say you, Sir Richard of Woodville, will you grant my conditions, provided that I save you from your peril, and give you the means of proving your innocence within an hour?"
"I must hear them first, knave," replied the young knight; "I will bind myself to nothing, till they are spoken."
"Oh, they are easily said," answered Ned Dyram. "First, I will have twenty miles free space between me and the camp--So much for security. Then I will have your knightly word, that a fair maiden whom you know, named Ella Brune, shall be mine."