g the freshly turned
earth. My Master had ridden off early: I could guess upon what errand.

He returned shortly after noon, unhurt and looking like a man satisfied
with his morning's work. And at dinner, watching his demeanour
narrowly, I was satisfied that either he had not heard the prisoner's
tale or had rejected it utterly. For he took his seat in the gayest
spirits, and laughed and talked with the stranger throughout the meal.
And afterwards, having fetched an old lute which had been his mother's,
he sat and watched her fit new strings to it, rallying her over her
tangle. But when she had it tuned and, touching it softly, began the
first of those murmuring heathenish songs to which I have since listened
so often, pausing in my work, but never without a kind of terror at
beauty so far above my comprehending--why, then my Master laughed no
more.

He had met Godolphin that morning and run him through the thigh.
And that bitterest enemy of ours still wore a crutch a month later, when
we faced Master Porson before the Commissioner in Saint Aubyn's house at
Clowance. At that conference (not to linger over the time between) the
Commissioner showed himself pardonably suspicious of us all. He was a
dry, foxy-faced man, who spoke little and at times seemed scarce to be
listening; but rather turning over some deeper matters in his brain
behind his grey-coloured eyes. But at length, Mr. Saint Aubyn having
twice or thrice made mention of the Lady Alicia and her presence on the
beach, this Sir Nicholas looked up at me sharply, and said he--"By all
accounts this lady was a passenger shipped by the master at Dunquerque.
It seems she was a foreign lady of birth, bearing letters commendatory
to the Court of Lisbon."

"That was his story of it," Master Porson assented. "I was below and
busy with the cargo at the time, and knew nothing of her presence on
board until we had cleared the harbour."

"And at this moment she is a guest of Mr. Milliton's at Pengersick?"
pursued Sir Nicholas, still with his eyes upon mine. I bowed, feeling
mightily uneasy. "It is most necessary that I should take her
evidence--and Mr. Milliton's. In all the statements received by me
Mr. Milliton bears no small part: his house lies at no distance from
Gunwallo Cove: and I have heard much of your Cornish courtesy.
It appears to me singular, therefore, that although I have been these
four days in his neighbourhood no invitation has reached me to