Cuthbert only escaped by forcing himself through an aperture, and dropping into the moat, from where he managed to swim ashore. He made his way at once to Lady Jane, and related to her how the insurrection had collapsed, and how her husband had been taken prisoner. For her own safety Jane had no thought. She at once determined to seek out the queen, and beseech her to spare her husband.
Accompanied by Cuthbert, she presented herself at the Tower, and, obtaining an audience with Mary, flung herself at her feet.
"I am come to submit myself to your highness's mercy," she said, as soon as she could find utterance.
"Mercy?" exclaimed Mary scornfully. "You shall receive justice, but no mercy."
"I do not sue for myself," rejoined Jane, "but for my husband. I have come to offer myself for him. If your highness has any pity for me, extend it to him, and heap his faults on my head."
Queen Mary was deeply moved. Had not Gardiner intervened, she would undoubtedly have granted the request; but Gardiner suggested that the price of the pardon should be the public reconciliation of Lady Jane and her husband with the Church of Rome.
"I cannot," said Jane. "I will die for him, but I cannot destroy my soul alive."
IV.--The Torture Chamber and the Block
After a week's imprisonment, Cuthbert was closely questioned, and his answers being deemed unsatisfactory, he was ordered to be examined under torture. With fiendish delight Nightgall took him to the horrible chamber. There, the first thing that he saw was the tortured, mangled figure of Lord Dudley, covered from head to foot by a blood-coloured cloth.
"You here?" cried the ghastly, distorted figure. "Where is Jane? Has she fled? Has she escaped?"