“They—they say—”
“What is it?”
“They say that the King’s archers are about my Lord Essex’s house.”
Ralph drew a swift breath.
“Well?”
“And that my Lord was arrested at the Council to-day.”
Ralph turned, and in three steps was in his room again. The key clacked in the lock.
CHAPTER VII
A QUESTION OF LOYALTY
He did not know how long he stood there, with the bundle of papers gripped in his two hands; and the thoughts racing through his brain.
The noises in the street outside waned and waxed again, as the news swept down the lanes, and recoiled with a wave of excited crowds following it. Then again they died to a steady far-off murmur as the mob surged and clamoured round the Palace and Abbey a couple of hundred yards away.