"Well, I will go watch my opportunity," replied Seymour; "no one can tell what changes may be made; but if they remove him to the Bell Tower, beneath the lantern, or to one of the dungeons, the occasion will be missed."
"Farewell, then, for the present," replied Sir Robert Killigrew; "I had better not accompany you."
"Perhaps not," said Seymour.
Bidding him adieu, and then taking his way towards the tower in which Sir Thomas Overbury was confined, he passed once or twice under the windows without looking up, seeing that there were several persons in the open space between the walls. At length, Overbury's window opened, but Seymour marked what he did not, that there was a workman wheeling a barrow round the other side of the tower, and, taking another turn, he came back again, and looked around.
"Hist, hist!" cried the prisoner; "speak to me for a moment, Mr. Seymour."
"I will be back in an instant," replied the other, "when I make sure that we are not observed."
In a few minutes, he again paused beneath the window, the sill of which was nearly level with his head, but a little above, and, looking up, he said, "Now, Sir Thomas, the workmen have gone to dinner; there is no one on the walls--what would you say?"
"Many things--many things," answered Overbury; "but the time is short, and I cannot say all. I have injured you, Mr. Seymour,--you and the Lady Arabella too. I would fain have your forgiveness, and beseech hers. I did it to serve a faithless man, who has placed me within these bars. I, it was, who informed the King of your meetings, and brought about your ruin. Had I known that you were married, I would have cut out my tongue ere I had uttered those words!"
"But did you not, likewise, Sir Thomas, write to warn her to escape?" asked Seymour. "I have heard so on good authority, and that such was one of your offences with the King."
"I did, I did," answered the Knight; "but it was too late."