he was
now protected by royalty, that he should have means and leisure to
accomplish his great design, that he should have friends whose power
could obtain its adoption by the king. He raised his eyes, and that
young dark face frowned upon him,--the child menacing the sage, brute
force in a pigmy shape, having authority of life and death over the
giant strength of genius. But these words, which recalled Warner from
his existence as philosopher, woke that of the gentle but brave and
honourable man which he was, when reduced to earth.

"Sir," he said gravely, "if I have consented to hold converse with the
unhappy, it was not as the tell-tale and the spier. I had formal warrant
for my visit, and I was solicited to render it by an early friend and
comrade, who sought to be my benefactor in aiding with gold my poor
studies for the king's people."

"Tut!" said Richard, impatiently, and playing with his dagger hilt; "thy
words, stealthy and evasive, prove thy guilt! Sure am I that this iron
traitor with its intricate hollows and recesses holds what, unless
confessed, will give thee to the hangman! Confess all, and thou art
spared."

"If," said Adam, mildly, "your Highness--for though I know not your
quality, I opine that no one less than royal could so menace--if your
Highness imagines that I have been intrusted by a fallen man, wrong
me not by supposing that I could fear death more than dishonour; for
certes!" continued Adam, with innocent pedantry, "to put the case
scholastically, and in the logic familiar, doubtless, to your Highness,
either I have something to confess or I have not; if I have--"

"Hound!" interrupted the prince, stamping his foot, "thinkest thou to
banter me,--see!" As his foot shook the floor, the door opened, and a
man with his arms bare, covered from head to foot in a black gown of
serge, with his features concealed by a hideous mask, stood ominously at
the aperture.

The prince motioned to the torturer (or tormentor, as he was technically
styled) to approach, which he did noiselessly, till he stood, tall,
grim, and lowering, beside Adam, like some silent and devouring monster
by its prey.

"Dost thou repent thy contumacy? A moment, and I render my questioning
to another!"

"Sir," said Adam, drawing himself up, and with so sudden a change of
mien, that his loftiness almost awed even the dauntless Richard,--"sir,
my fathers feared not death when they did battle for the throne of
England; and w