That officer, at the first mention of Sir Harry's name, had ordered him to be admitted, though he was in conversation at the time with a gentleman from the Court, who had come upon the pretence of paying a visit to Mr. Seymour, but in reality to smooth down the irritated feelings of the Lieutenant, and induce him to resign his post quietly, without calling attention to the transaction by remonstrance or resistance. A servant had been sent to the apartments of Seymour, to know whether he would admit Sir Charles Warner to speak with him; and the man returned, almost at the same moment that the good old Knight and his fair companion entered the Lieutenant's room.
Sir Harry might perhaps have felt a little alarmed, if he had known the servant's errand; but the first words he heard were: "I have been to Mr. Seymour's, sir, and there saw one of his gentlemen, who says that his master is in bed with a raging headache, and cannot see any one; he would not even go in to tell him."
"Oh! never mind, never mind," replied Warner; "I will see him another day--Master Lieutenant, I will wait a little till you have dispatched this other business, for our conversation was growing interesting. Good morning, Sir Harry West."
"To me extremely so, sir," answered the Lieutenant. "Sir Harry, I am your humble servant. What is this affair the warder tells me of? Pray be seated, young lady. The case does not seem to come within my cognizance."
"It is simply this, sir," replied the old knight. "This young lady I have long known, and dearly love, as to her I owe my life, she having nursed me through the plague some years ago. She is now a gentlewoman attending on the Lady Arabella Seymour; and on crossing Tower-hill but now, I met her, hurried along against her will by two men, one of whom I know to be the servant of a rank impostor and conjurer, one Doctor Foreman."
"Oh! I have seen him," replied the Lieutenant; "he is a knave, if ever there was one."
"Ay, and has many ways of knavery," said Warner; "the report goes, that many have suffered from his practices."
"But what excuse do the men urge," asked the Lieutenant, "for using this violence to the lady?"
"They say they are commanded by the King to bring her before him," answered Sir Harry West.
"I never said so," exclaimed the man, who was standing guarded by a yeoman near the door; "my comrade did, and so he told me, too."