“Yes, lash them, you whelp, but it’s over your own shoulders the cord should go, had I the ordering, thou meanest of the pack.”
“Madam,” said the Earl of Strafford sternly, “I would have you know that none give orders here but me.”
“In that you are mistaken, my lord. You have just heard me give them, and furthermore have seen them obeyed. But aside from the ordering of either you or me, I understand this to be the King’s park.” Again De Courcy laughed.
“She hit you there, my lord,” he had the temerity to say.
Strafford paid no attention to his gibe, but gazed darkly at the fearless intruder.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I have told you, my lord. I wish a word in your private ear.”
“Speak out what you have to say.”
“’T is to be heard by none but the Earl of Strafford; no, not even by the King himself; for, you should know, were it other fashion, I would have spoken when last I encountered you.”
“I have no secrets from the King.”