“Dick, we must help them,” he said.
“The surest way to do that is to give them money enough to quit the country,” said the tragedian.
“But what of Sir John Feversham?”
Burbage threw up his hands impatiently. “He concerns us not,” he said. “And I beseech you, my dear Will, to give not another thought to him.”
The playwright shook his head. “Nay, my friend,” he said, “let us not leave a brave and honorable man to die.”
“To that I would say amen if in any sort we could avail him.”
“The Queen should learn the truth, I think.”
“How, pray, is she to learn it?”
“On Thursday se’nnight, if this unlucky man still lives, we must find a way to tell her.”
But Burbage dissented strongly. “It would be madness, Will, sheer madness for us to breathe a word on the subject. You know what the times are. And when it comes to treason it takes but a very slight thing to undo the best man alive.”