n at the heart, but it was Dalaber who
put the next question.

"Is only Clarke coming hither?" he asked. "What of Sumner and
Radley who were with him in prison?"

Dr. Langton paused a brief while before answering, and then he said
in a low and moved voice:

"Radley was scarce alive when we came to them. They were all taken
to the Bridge House, where we had made preparation to receive them.
But he died within a few hours. I scarce know whether he did really
understand that liberty had come at last. On the morning of the
second day Sumner died, and we thought that Clarke was lying in
articulo mortis; but I tried in his case a certain drug, the use of
which I have only recently discovered, whereupon he fell into a
quiet, natural sleep, and the fever began to leave him. There is
much sickness again in the town, and it seemed to me well that, if
he could bear removal, he should be taken where stronger and purer
air could be breathed.

"Yesterday, very early in the morning, we started forth. Arthur had
had an easy litter constructed under his own eyes, which can be
slung between two horses walking gently and evenly. In this way we
have brought him. In another hour he should be here. I wish to make
ready some large and airy chamber that opens direct upon the
garden, where he can be carried daily to inhale the scents of the
flowers and be enwrapped by the sunshine. If there be a chance of
recovery--"

Dr. Langton stopped short, and Magdalen looked earnestly into his
face. She read his thoughts there.

"You think he will die?"

"I fear so. I misdoubt me if there can be any rally. And in truth,
my child"--he drew Magdalen gently onwards with him towards the
room which he had fixed upon in his own mind as the one most suited
to his purpose--"in truth, I know not if it were true kindness to
seek to save that stainless life. I had speech with Dr. Higdon
anent this very matter only the night before we started forth, and
he told me that, albeit the bishop had been persuaded by the
cardinal to permit the release of the prisoners for the present,
yet that, should any recover--and in particular, Master Clarke--he
was like to demand his surrender later into his own merciless
hands; and it is well known that he has said that, since Wolsey
would not burn Garret or Ferrar when he had them in his clutches,
be would burn Clarke so soon as he was able to stand his trial.
Some even say that he only suffered the men to be released from