Yet it seemed that something restrained my lord from speaking till the other was done; but when Master Richard went back a step, shaking under the spirit of God, my lord burst out into words.
Master Richard could not understand him; there was drumming in his ears, and the sweat poured from him, but when sight came back he observed my lord's face, red with passion, turning now to him, now to the King, who sat still in his place; his white eyebrows went up and down, and his scarlet cape and his rochet flapped this way and that as he shook his arms and cried out.
When he had done there was silence again for a full minute. Master
Richard could hear the breathing of one in the gallery without.
Then the King rose up without speaking, but looking intently upon the young man, and still without speaking, went out from the room, and my lord went after him.
When Master Richard had stood a little while waiting, and there was no sound (for the door into the King's parlour was now shut again), he turned to the other door to go out; for he had delivered his message, and there was no more to be said.
The man that kept the door, and whose breathing Master Richard had heard just now, barred the way, and asked him his business.
"My business is done," said Master Richard, "I must go home again."
"And the King?" asked the fellow.
"The King and my lord are gone back into the parlour."
There was no cause to keep Master Richard any longer, so the fellow let him past, and he went down the gallery and the stairs towards the court that opened upon the hall.