"Because I had no proof," replied the girl: "at first I fled from him in terror and consternation, knowing that if I did not do as he required, after he had put his secret in my power, he would poison me; and then, when good Sir Harry West delivered me from him, I reflected, and saw that to bring such a charge might but call down destruction on my own head. I was but a poor Italian girl--an alien, a stranger, with no one to speak for me, nothing to corroborate what I said. He had taken care to give me no proof against him; there was but my word against his; and I knew he was supported by many great men, who were more or less in his power, from secrets that they dared not see divulged.--What could I do, lady?"
"You did right, you did right, dear Ida," answered Arabella: "but I fear much that, even now, he goes to Sir Thomas Overbury for no good. I will not believe that the King has sent him; or, if so, the King is but a tool in the hands of others. This poor Knight has many enemies, I fear. Are there no means of warning him against so dangerous a physician?"
"Perhaps there may be," answered Ida Mara; "for though there is a guard at each end of the walk on the top of the wall, to prevent his passing farther on either side than for mere air and exercise, yet they have never stopped me as I have passed that way; and one day I saw his door open."
"Did you ever meet him?" asked Arabella.
"No, never," replied Ida Mara; "but I hear he is ill now, and confined to his bed."
"Alas!" said Arabella, "who can tell how that illness has been brought about? There were suspicions abroad from the very first. Men discovered that Rochester, instead of being his friend, was his enemy; and there is not such a rancorous hatred on this earth, Ida, as that which dwells in the breast of the ungrateful. This poor man's imprisonment is a living reproach to the King's favourite; and I have many, many doubts."
"I shall not dare to turn my steps that way again," said Ida Mara, "lest I should meet that dreadful man. The very sight of him seems to curdle my whole blood, and makes my heart labour as if it would not beat."
Arabella remained in thought for a few minutes, and then said, "I will go myself, Ida; he must be warned, if possible."
"Nay, lady, nay," answered Ida Mara; "I meant not to say that; I will go. We shall soon see him pass back, and then it will be safe." As she spoke, she approached the window and looked out, keeping herself, however, behind the stonework of the wall.
Arabella followed her, standing somewhat more forward, and gazing down into the open space below. They remained thus, however, for nearly a quarter of an hour, without seeing any one but an occasional labourer, and a party of the guard, proceeding towards the outer gates.