scelles.

Culpepper cast back his cap from his eyes and leant away the better to
slap Throckmorton on the back.

'Ye ha' heard o' my deeds,' he said.

'All England rings with them,' Throckmorton said. He interjected,
'Still! hound!' to Lascelles in Italian, and went on to Culpepper: 'I
ha' moved the King to come this night to thy cousin's room hard by for
I knew ye would go to her. The King is hot to speak with thee. Comport
thyself as I do bid thee and art a made man indeed.'

Culpepper laughed with hysterical delight.

'By Cock!' he shouted. 'Master Viridus, thou art naught to this. Three
farms shall not content me nor yet ten.'

Throckmorton's eyes shot a glance at Viridus and back again to
Lascelles' face.

'If you speak I slay you,' he said. Lascelles' eyes started from his
head, his mouth worked, and on the table his hands jerked
convulsively. But Throckmorton had seen that Viridus still sat
motionless.

'By Cock!' Culpepper cried. 'By Guy and Cock! let me kiss thee.'

'Sir,' Throckmorton said, 'I pray you speak no more words, not at all
till I bid you speak. I am a very great lord here; you shall observe
gravity and decorum or never will I bring you to the King. You are not
made for Courts.'

'Oh, I kiss your hands,' Culpepper answered him. 'But wherefore have
you a dagger?'

'Sir,' Throckmorton said again, 'I will have you silent, for if the
King should pass the door he will be offended by your babble.' He
interjected to Viridus, speaking in Italian, 'Speak thou to this fool
and engage him to think. I can give you no more grounds, but you must
quickly decide either to go with Rich the Chancellor and myself or to
remain the liege of the Privy Seal.'

Never once did he take his eyes from Lascelles, and the sweat stood
upon his forehead. Once when Lascelles moved he slid the dagger along
the table with a sharp motion and a gasping of breath, as a pincer
pressed to the death will make a faint. Yet his voice neither raised
itself nor fell one shade.

'And if I will aid you in this, what reward do I get?' Viridus asked.
He too spoke low and unmovedly, keeping his eyes upon the table.

'The one-half of my enrichments for five years, the one-half of those
of the Chancellor, and my voice for you with the King and with the new
Queen.'

'And if I will not go with you?'

'Then when the King passeth this door I do cry out "Treason! treason!"
and you, I, and this man, and this shall to-night sleep in the