men behind him, he was in a gaol already. He paused to go back;
then it came to him that, if he could win forward and find the King,
who alone, by giving ear, could save him, he would yet not know first
how Katharine had fared. He had a great stabbing at his heart with
that thought, and once more mounted.

From the door next hers there streamed a light. Hers was closed. He
ran to it and knocked, leaning his head against the panels to listen.
There was no sound, no sound at all when he knocked again. It was
intolerable. He thrust the door open. No woman was there and no man.
He went in. He thought: 'If the room be in disorder----'

He made out in the twilight that the room stood as always; the chair
loomed where it should; there was a spark on the hearth; the books
were ordered on the table; no stool was overturned. He stood amid
these things, his heart beating tumultuously, his ears pricked up,
stilling his breathing to listen, in the blue twilight, like a wild
beast.

A voice said:

'Body o' God! Throckmorton!' beneath its breath, the light of the next
door grew large and smaller again; he caught from there the words:
'It is Throckmorton.' And at the sound Throckmorton loosened his
dagger in its sheath. Some glimmering of the plan reached him; they
were awaiting Katharine's coming, and a great load fell from his mind.
She was not yet taken.

He paused to stroke his beard for fear it was disordered, pulled from
over his shoulder the medallion on the chain; it had flown there as he
ran. He pushed ajar the next door a minute later, having thought many
thoughts and appearing stately and calm.

He replaced the door at its exact angle and gazed at the three silent
men. Thomas Culpepper, his brows knotted, his lips moving, was holding
his head askew to see the measurements upon a map of his farm at
Bromley. That Lascelles had gone out and come back saying that one
Throckmorton was in the next room was nothing to him. The next room
was nothing to him; he was there to hear of his farms.

Viridus, silent, dark and enigmatic, gazed at a spot upon the table;
Lascelles, his mouth a little open, his eyes dilated, had his hands
upon it.

Without speaking, Throckmorton noted that the room was empty save for
the table and benches; the hangings had been taken down; all the
furnishings were gone. That morning the room had been well filled,
warm, and in the occupancy of the Lady Deedes. Therefore Cromwell had
worked this change