ns; because you asked me, and because I would have no innocent men
suffer in my stead--not even though, as these men, they were but caught
in their own toils, hoist with the petard they had charged for me.
Beyond these two motives, I had no other thought in ruining myself."

"Ruining yourself?" she cried. Yes, it was true; but she had not thought
of it until this moment; there had been so much to think of.

"Is it not ruin to be outlawed, to have a price set upon your head, as
will no doubt a price be set on mine when Albemarle's messenger shall
have reached Whitehall? Is it not ruin to have my lands and all I
own made forfeit to the State, to find myself a beggar, hunted and
proscribed? Forgive me that I harass you with this catalogue of my
misfortunes. You'll say, no doubt, that I have brought them upon myself
by compelling you against your will to marry me.

"I'll not deny that it is in my mind," said she, and of set purpose
stifled pity.

He sighed and looked at her again, but she would not meet his eye, else
its whimsical expression might have intrigued her. "Can you deny my
magnanimity, I wonder?" said he, and spoke almost as one amused. "All I
had I sacrificed to do your will, to save your brother from the snare
of his own contriving against me. I wonder do you yet realize how much
I sacrificed to-day at Taunton! I wonder!" And he paused, looking at her
and waiting for some word from her; but she had none for him.

"Clearly you do not, else I think you would show me if only a pretence
of kindness." She was looking at him at last, her eyes less hard. They
seemed to ask him to explain. "When you came this morning with the
tale of how the tables had been turned upon your brother, of how he
was caught in his own springe, and the letter found in his keeping was
before the King's folk at Taunton with every appearance of having been
addressed to him, and not a tittle of evidence to show that it had been
meant for me, do you know what news it was you brought me?" He paused
a second, looking at her from narrowing eyes. Then he answered his own
question. "You brought me the news that you were mine to take whensoe'er
I pleased. Whilst that letter was in your hands it gave you the power to
make me your obedient slave. You might blow upon me as you listed whilst
you held it, and I was a vane that must turn to your blowing for my
honour's sake and for the sake of the cause in which I worked. Through
no rashness of mine mus