Or, if because he was drunk and
speechless--as well he might be having travelled far and with
expedition--ye did not know he was my messenger; then wherefore did ye
not run to raise all the castle for succour?'

The young Poins pointed to the wound above his eye and then to the
ground of the corridor. He would signify that Culpepper had struck him,
and that there, on the ground, he had lain senseless.

'Ho!' the King said, for he was willing to know how many men in that
castle had wind of this mischance. 'You lay not there all this while.
When I came here along, you stood here by the door in your place.'

The young Poins fell upon his knees. He shook more violently than a
naked man on a frosty day. For here indeed was the centre of his
treason, since Lascelles had bidden him stay there, once Culpepper was
in the Queen's room, and to say later that there the Queen had bidden
him stay whilst she had her lover. And now, before the King's tremendous
presence, he had the fear at his heart that the King knew this.

'Wherefore! wherefore!' the King thundered, 'wherefore didst not cry
out--cry out--"Treason, Raise the watch!"? Hail out aloud?'

He waited, silent for a long time. The three pikemen leaned upon their
pikes; and now Culpepper had fallen against the door-post, where the
King held him up. And behind his back the Queen marvelled at the King's
ready wit. This was the best stroke that ever she had known him do. And
the Lady Rochford lay where she had feigned to faint, straining her
ears.

With all these ears listening for his words the young Poins knelt, his
teeth chattering like burning wood that crackles.

'Wherefore? wherefore?' the King cried again.

Half inaudibly, his eyes upon the ground, the boy mumbled, 'It was to
save the Queen from scandal!'

The King let his jaw fall, in a fine aping of amazement. Then, with the
huge swiftness of a bull, he threw Culpepper towards one of the guards,
and, leaning over, had the kneeling boy by the throat.

'Scandal!' he said. 'Body of God! Scandal!' And the boy screamed out,
and raised his hands to hide the King's intolerable great face that
blazed down over his eyes.

The huge man cast him from him, so that he fell over backwards, and lay
upon his side.

'Scandal!' the King cried out to his guards. 'Here is a pretty scandal!
That a King may not send a messenger to his wife withouten scandal! God
help me....'

He stood suddenly again over the boy as if he would