a
dizzy sheep. Let me slip out."

"Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more."

So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the
meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and threes,
among trim gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks--

Where west-winds with musky wing
About the cedarn alleys fling
Nard and cassia's balmy smells--"

admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into other
hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks true) one of
the noblest mansions of the West.

At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with wine
to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone twenty
yards along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville.

"Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?"

"Yes--why, where is he? He was with me not ten minutes ago. You know he
is going back to Spain."

"Going! Has his ransom come?"

"Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies."

"Governorship! Much good may it do the governed."

"Why not, then? He is surely a most gallant gentleman."

"Gallant enough--yes," said Cary, carelessly. "I must find him, and
congratulate him on his honors."

"I will help you to find him," said Lady Grenville, whose woman's eye
and ear had already suspected something. "Escort me, sir."

"It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford," said
Cary, offering his hand.

"If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed," answered she, in a meaning
tone. Cary took the hint, and went on chattering cheerfully enough.

But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce.

"Perhaps," at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, "your
ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak."

"At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?"

"Pleasant company, I reckon" (with another toss). "I heard him and
Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now."

Cary turned pale and drew in his breath.

"Very likely," said Lady Grenville, quietly. "Will you walk with me so
far, Mr. Cary?"

"To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far." And off they
went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere else, but
afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that some one or other
ought to go.

So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into
the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady
Grenv