Next morning Carver went forth again, returning punctually at five o’clock in the evening, and he pursued the same course for nearly a week, rather anticipating his time than staying beyond it. One evening, however, he did not appear as usual. Three hours more went by, and still he came not, and then Mallet thought it right to acquaint the Cardinal with his prolonged absence. The information caused Pole to look grave.
“Something must have happened to him,” he said. “I do not believe he would have stayed away of his own accord, still less do I deem he has any design of evasion. Send Rodomont Bittern to me.”
On Rodomont’s arrival, the Cardinal ordered him to make immediate inquiries after the prisoner, and to take any persons with him who might aid in the quest.
“My own opinion is that the man has fallen into a snare.” Pole said. “But I leave it to your shrewdness to discover what has become of him.”
“In obedience to your Eminence’s injunctions, his movements have not been watched,” replied Rodomont, “so that we have no clue to guide us. Nevertheless, I will essay to find him.”
“About the business forthwith, and with a good heart,” said the Cardinal. “You are quick-witted, and your penetration will put you on the right track.”
Taking with him his lieutenants, Jack Holiday and Nick Simnel, Rodomont set out on his mission. Revolving what the Cardinal had said while dismissing him, he came to the conclusion that he should get on the right track by going to Bonner, who, he suspected, had a strong motive for keeping the prisoner out of the way.
Accordingly, he entered the Cardinal’s barge with his friends, bidding the oarsmen row them with all possible dispatch to the stairs at Paul’s chain, where, landing, they made the best of their way to the palace of the Bishop of London—a large edifice, which then stood on the north-west side of the cathedral.
From the porter at the palace gate they ascertained that Bonner was attending vespers in Saint Paul’s, where they could speak with him on the conclusion of the service. Rodomont then inquired from the porter whether any heretics had been arrested that day. The man replied that several had been taken at a conventicle in Foster-lane, and that the chief sacramentary, who had been holding forth to the others, was detained in a strong-room in the gate till the lord bishop should decide what was to be done with him.
Rodomont then explained to the porter that he was an officer in Cardinal Pole’s household, and with his companions was in search of an heretical prisoner named Derrick Carver, and this perchance might be he.