"'Tis certain he did not," said one of the guards on the steps.
Hudsdon made his way through the group on the steps, strode upon the stage, and, going to the centre thereof, to Mr. Burbage's utter amazement, said to Roger Barnet:
"There's deviltry afoot! The prisoner came not yonder, yet he is not here!"
"What say'st thou?" replied Roger, turning dark, and springing to his feet. "Thou'st been cozened. Hudsdon! He fled yonder; I saw him!" And he pointed toward the tiring-room.
"Nay," said one of the gallants on the stage, "he fled over the balcony, into the house." The speaker indicated the balcony used by Juliet, which, as has been said, was no higher above the back of the stage than were the eyes of a man standing. "That I'll swear. He grasped the balustrade, and drew himself up, and bent around, and put knee to the balcony's edge; and then 'twas short work over the balustrade and across the balcony."
"Ay, 'tis so!" cried out many voices from near the stage, and from the occupied part of the balcony itself.
"Why, then, Hudsdon, take three men, and search the house," cried Roger, for whom Mr. Burbage had indignantly made way by retiring to the back of the stage. Then the pursuivant turned to his informants: "An ye had eyes for so much, had none of you the wit to call out whither he went?"
"I thought it was part of the play," lisped the gallant. "I thought he ran away lest he be taken for killing the witty gentleman."
"Why, so he did," quoth Barnet, "but he ought not to have run to the balcony!"
"Marry, look you," said the other, "he cried 'Away!' and started for the curtain; then he said, 'Nay, I'll to the balcony!' and so to the balcony he went. I thought 'twas in the play."