"In truth, I know not well what your grace means," answered the knight, "though I can see that some villain behind my back has been blackening my character in your fair opinion. I came here frankly to tender you, of my own free will, services that you once hinted might be acceptable. Men who would climb high, my lord duke, must make their first steps firm."
"True, true, sir knight," replied the duke, moderating the acerbity of his manner; "but how can I rise higher than I am? Perhaps, indeed, my pride may soar too high a pitch, when I fancy that in this realm, next to his grace the king, my head stands highest."
"True," said Sir Payan; "but I have heard a prophecy, that your grace's head should be of all the highest without any weakening qualification next to any man's. His grace King Henry may die, and I have myself known the Duke of Buckingham declare, that there were shrewd doubts whether the king's marriage with his brother's wife were so far valid as to give an heir to the English crown. Kings may die, too, of the sharp sword and the keen dagger. Such being the case, and the king dying without heirs male, who will stand so near the throne as the Duke of Buckingham? Who has so much the people's love? Who may command so many of the most expert and powerful men in England?"
The duke paused and thought. He was "not without ambition, though he was without the illness that should accompany it." No one did he more thoroughly abhor than Sir Payan Wileton; and, yet rich, powerful, unscrupulous, full of politic wile and daring stratagem, Sir Payan was a man who might serve him essentially as a friend, might injure him deeply as an enemy; and he was, moreover, one that must be treated as one or the other, must be either courted or defied. While a thousand thoughts of this kind passed through the mind of the duke, and connecting themselves with others, wandered far on the wild and uncertain tract that his ambition presented to his view, while the passion by which angels fell was combating in his bosom with duty, loyalty, and friendship, the eye of Sir Payan Wileton glanced from time to time towards his face, watching and calculating the emotions of his mind, with that degree of certainty which long observation of the passions and weakness of human nature had bestowed. At length he saw the countenance of the duke lighted up with a triumphant smile, while, fixing his eyes upon the figure of an old king in the tapestry, he seemed busily engaged in anticipations of the future. "He has them now," thought Sir Payan, "the crown, the sceptre, and the ball. Well, let him enjoy his golden dream;" and dropping his eyes on the table, he gathered the addresses of the various letters which Buckingham had apparently been writing: "The Earl of Devonshire"--"The Lord Dacre"--"Sir John Morton"--"The Earl of Fitzbernard, to be rendered to the hands of Sir Osborne Maurice"--"The Prior of Langley."
"Ha!" thought the knight, "Lord Fitzbernard! Sir Osborne Maurice! So, so! I have the train. Take heed, Buckingham! take heed, or you fall;" and he raised his eyes once more to the countenance of the duke, whose look was now fixed full upon him.
"Sir Payan Wileton," said Buckingham, "we have both been meditating, and perhaps our meditations have arrived at the same conclusion."
"I hope, my lord duke," answered Sir Payan, returning to the former subject of conversation, "that your grace finds that I may be of service to you."
"Not in the least," replied the duke, sternly; for it had so happened that his eyes had fallen upon Sir Payan just at the moment that the knight was furtively perusing the address of the letter to Lord Fitzbernard, and the combinations thus produced in the mind of the noble Buckingham had not been very much in favour of Sir Payan: "not in the least, Sir Payan Wileton. Let me tell you, sir, that you must render back Chilham Castle to its lord; you must reverse all the evil that you have done and attempted towards his son; you must abandon such foul schemes, and cancel all the acts of twenty years of your life, before you be such a man as may act with Buckingham."
"My lord duke! my lord duke!" cried Sir Payan, "this is too much to bear. Your pride, haughty peer, has made you mad, but your pride shall have a fall. Beware of yourself, Duke of Buckingham, for no one shall ever say that he offended Sir Payan Wileton unscathed. Know you that you are in my power?"
"In thine, insect!" cried the duke. "But begone! you move me too far. Ho! without there! Begone, I say, or Buckingham may forget himself!"