an through her
frame. "I have not seen him since he was torturing thee. The next I
knew I was within a closed, wheeled litter, travelling at a fearful
pace, and this woman here, beside me. I tried to get out, but could
not. Armed men rode all around the litter. Steadily did we travel on,
stopping but seldom to get fresh horses, food, and some little rest,
until we reached this place. Here have I been locked up and treated as
a mad woman."

"The fiend!" I cried.

"Yes, Catesby had evidently been here and told them that I was his mad
sister, which thought I was another, and this woman here hath been my
keeper since I came."

I walked over to where the woman--an old hag--was crouched on a bench
in a corner, trembling with fear.

"Thou mayest leave this place at once, madam," I said, "and thank God,
which made thee so, that thou hast at least the sex of a woman.

"Your master is now the prisoner of our new King Henry, and, unless the
aforesaid King be of more forgiving nature than I think, Catesby shall
soon be with his master, the usurping tyrant, Richard, which is even
now in Hell's consuming fire."

"Oh, poor Sir William!" she wailed. "Ah, sir! I nursed him at my
breast, and ever since have I been his servant. Oh! save him, sir! I
know he did have his faults; but still do I love and serve him, as
though he were mine own. For God's sake, sir, speak but a word to your
new King, and thou canst save him! Return good for evil, now that thou
hast the power!" and she knelt at my feet and threw her arms about my
legs.

"Strange," thought I, "that even such a villain as is Catesby hath some
one who loves him." Then aloud I said:--"It must not be. My wrongs
are not the only ones that he must answer for. Catesby hath writ a
volume of misdeeds, and the whole world hath perused them. No man can
stop the bad effects of these in other ways than by the suppression of
the one that doeth them."

"Wilt thou not have mercy on him, Walter dear?" asked the
tender-hearted maid which now clung to my side.

I started in surprise. "What! dost thou plead for Catesby?" I asked.

"Nay, not for him; but for this old woman here. She hath done naught
but obey her master. Save the knave, Walter, for this old woman's
sake. We can now afford to be generous, Walter dear; now that all
danger is past. Besides, he can do no harm, and mayhap your generosity
will show him the evil of his acts, and he will then repent," and she