"For shame, Master Deputy," said Bradstreet.
"We desire to learn of you your knowledge of the person calling himself Sir Christopher Gardiner," said Winthrop. "Know you by what right he doth assume the title?"
"I will answer your question," replied the lady, "protesting against the coercion exercised over me. He is a worthy and honorable gentleman of my own personal knowledge, and of the family of the Gardiners, of whom Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was an illustrious scion."
"How know you of the relationship?" inquired Winthrop.
"Sir Christopher hath himself told me so," answered the lady.
"A manifest invention," said Endicott, in a low voice to Dudley, "to raise himself in the estimation of his paramour."
"Our minds do meet in the same conclusion," said Dudley, in a like tone. "Hear, too, the boasting manner in which she rolls the word 'bishop' over her tongue."
"When and where became you first acquainted with the Knight?" inquired Winthrop.
"From early youth, at Boirdly, in Salopshire, England."
"Know you when he was knighted?"