“None save that I mentioned,” replied Pole. “You shall be free to go forth, but you must come back to your cell at eventide.”
For a few moments Carver covered his face with his hands, and tears trickled down his rugged cheeks. After a while he looked up and, in broken accents, said, “I did not think to weep again either for joy or grief. But your Eminence’s goodness has touched me to the heart, and opened fountains which I deemed fast sealed. You shall not find me unworthy of the confidence reposed in me. The promise you exact shall be religiously fulfilled. If I am suffered to go abroad, I will assuredly return.”
“Is it safe to let him out?” observed Priuli. “He is seditious and perilous.”
“I will trust him,” replied Pole.
Upon this he called in Mallet, and informed him of the permission he had granted the prisoner.
“But, your Eminence,” remonstrated the keeper, “I am responsible for his safe custody to Bishop Bonner. If this unheard-of license be granted him, the man will never come back.”
“Set your mind at ease on that score, good friend,” observed Carver. “I have plighted my word to the Lord Cardinal, and I will die rather than break it.”
“But what am I to say to the bishop? I shall never be able to face him.”
“Say that you act by my orders,” returned the Cardinal. “Refer the bishop to me.”
“Such a thing was never done before,” said Mallet. “As well let loose a ravening wolf among a flock of sheep as liberate this man.”