Sir Cesar's eyes sparkled, and Sir Payan's cheek turned pale, as Henry put the question; but he boldly replied, "Never, so help me heaven! I never saw him, or heard of him, or knew him, by any other name than Osborne Maurice."
"Oh, you villanous great liar! Oh, you hypocritical thief!" shouted Jekin Groby, darting out from behind the tapestry, unable to contain himself any longer. "I don't care, I don't care a groat for any one; but I won't hear you tell his grace's worship such a string of lies, all as fat and as well tacked together as Christmas sausages. Lord 'a mercy! I'll tell your graces, both of you, how it was; for you don't know, that's clear. This here Sir Osborne Maurice, that you are asking about, is neither more nor less than that Lord Darnley that I was telling your grace of this morning. Lord! now, didn't I hear him tell that sweet young lady, Mistress Constance de Grey, all about it; how he could not bear to live any longer abroad in these foreign parts, and how he had come back under the name of Sir Osborne Maurice, all for to get your grace's love as an adventurous knight? And then didn't that Sir Payan--yes, you great thief! you did, for I heard you--didn't he come and crow over him, and say that now he had got him in his power? And then didn't he offer to let him go if he would sign some papers? And then, when he would not, didn't he swear a great oath that he would murther him, saying, 'he would make his tenure good by the extinction of the race of Darnley?' You did, you great rogue! you know you did! And, Lord 'a mercy! to think of your going about to tell his grace such lies! your own king, too, who should never hear anything but the truth! God forgive you, for you're a great sinner, and the devils will never keep company with you when you go to purgatory, but will kick you out into the other place, which is worse still, folks say. And now, I humbly beg your grace's pardon, and will go back again, if you like, behind the hangings; but I couldn't abear to hear him cheat you like that."
The sudden appearance of Jekin Groby, and the light he cast upon the subject, threw the whole party into momentary confusion. Sir Payan's resolution abandoned him; his knees shook, and his very lips grew pale. Sir Cesar gazed upon him with triumphant eyes, exclaiming, "Die, die! what hast thou left but to die?" At the same time Wolsey questioned Jekin Groby, who told the same straightforward tale; and Henry explained the whole to Francis, whose comprehension of the English tongue did not quite comprise the jargon of the worthy clothier.
Sir Payan Wileton, however, resolved to make one last despairing effort both to save himself and to ruin his enemies; for the diabolical spirit of revenge was as deeply implanted in his bosom as that of self-preservation. He thought then for a moment, glanced rapidly over his situation, and cast himself on his knee before the king. "Great and noble monarch!" said he, in a slow, impressive voice, "I own my fault--I acknowledge my crime; but it is not such as you think it. Hear me but out, and you yourself shall judge whether you will grant me mercy or show me rigour. I confess, then, that I had entered as deeply as others into the treasonable plot I have betrayed against your throne and life; nay, more--that I would never have divulged it, had I not found that the Lord Darnley had, under the name of Sir Osborne Maurice, become the Duke of Buckingham's chief agent, and was to be rewarded by the restitution of Chilham Castle, for which some vague indemnity was proposed to me hereafter. On bearing it, I dissembled my resentment; and pretending to enter more heartily than ever into the scheme, I found that the ambitious duke reckoned as his chief hope, in case of war, on the skill and chivalry of this Lord Darnley, who promised by his hand to seat him on the throne. I learned, moreover, the names of all the conspirators, amongst whom that old man is one;" and he pointed to Sir Cesar, who gazed upon him with a smile of contempt and scorn, whose intensity had something of sublime. "Thirsting for revenge," proceeded Sir Payan, "and with my heart full of rage, I commanded four of my servants to stop the private courier of the duke, when I knew he was charged with letters concerning this Sir Osborne Maurice, and thus I obtained those papers I placed in the hands of my lord cardinal----"
"But how shall we know they are not forgeries?" cried Henry. "Your honour, sir, is so gone, and your testimony so suspicious, that we may well suppose those letters cunning imitations of the good duke's hand. We have heard of such things--ay, marry have we."
"Herein, happily, your grace can satisfy yourself and prove my truth," replied Sir Payan; "send for the servants whose names I will give, examine them, put them to the torture if 'you will; and if you wring not from them that, on the twenty-ninth of March, they stopped, by my command, the courier of the Duke of Buckingham, and took from him his bag of letters, condemn me to the stake. But mark me, King of England! I kneel before you pleading for life; grant it to me, with but my own hereditary property, and Buckingham, with all the many traitors that are now aiming at your life and striving for your crown, shall fall into your hand, and you shall have full evidence against them. I will instantly disclose all their names, and give you proof against their chief, that to-morrow you can reward his treason with the axe, nor fear to be called unjust. But if you refuse me your royal promise, sacredly given here before your brother king--to yield me life, and liberty, and lands, as soon as I have fulfilled my word--I will go to my death in silence, like the wolf, and never will you be able to prove anything against them; for that letter is nothing without my testimony to point it aright."
"You are bold!" said Henry; "you are very bold! but our subjects' good and the peace of our country may weigh with us. What think you, Wolsey?" And for a moment or two he consulted in a low tone with the cardinal and the King of France. "I believe, my liege," said Wolsey, whose hatred towards Buckingham was of the blindest virulence; "I believe that your grace will never be able to prove his treasons on the duke without this man's help. Perhaps you had better promise."
Francis bit his lip and was silent; but Henry, turning to Sir Payan, replied, "The tranquillity of our realm and the happiness of our people overcome our hatred of your crimes; and therefore we promise, that if by your evidence treason worthy of death be proved upon Edward Duke of Buckingham, you shall be free in life, in person, and in lands."
"Never!" cried the voice of Sir Cesar, mounting into a tone of thunder; "never!" And springing forward, he caught Sir Payan by the throat, grappled with him but for an instant, with a maniacal vigour, and drawing the small dagger he always carried, plunged it into the heart of the knight, with such force that one might have heard the blow of the hilt against his ribs. The whole was done in a moment, before any one was aware; and the red blood and the dark spirit rushing forth together, with a loud groan the traitor fell prone upon the ground; while Sir Cesar, without a moment's pause, turned the dagger against his own bosom, and drove it in up to the very haft.
Wolsey drew back in horror and affright. Francis and Henry started up, laying their hands upon their swords; Jekin Groby crept behind the arras; and the guards rushed in to seize the slayer; but Sir Cesar waved them back with the proud and dignified air of one who feels that earthly power has over him no further sway. "What fear ye?" said he, turning to the kings, and still holding the poniard tight against his bosom, as if to restrain the spirit from breathing forth through the wound. "There is no offence in the dead or in the dying. Hear me, King of England! and hear the truth, which thou wouldst never have heard from that false caitiff. Yet I have little time; the last moments of existence speed with fast wings towards another shore: give me a seat, for I am faint."