till smiling
sardonically, he placed it in Privy Seal's fat hands.

'Here is the great secret,' he said. 'I took it even in the gates of
Chapuys.'

Privy Seal started a little and cried, 'Ah!' The boy would have
spoken, but he feared even to cry out; his eyes were starting from his
head, and his breath came in great gusts that shook him. Privy Seal
sat down in a large chair by the fire and considered for a moment.
Then he slowly drew out the crumpled ball of paper. Here at last he
held the Lady Mary utterly in his power; here at last, at the eleventh
hour, he had a new opportunity to show to the King his vigilance, his
power, and how necessary he was to the safety of the realm. He had
been beginning to despair; Winchester was to confess the King that
night. Now he held them....

'I have been diligent,' Throckmorton said. 'I had had the Lady Mary
set in the room that has a spy-hole beside a rose in the ceiling. So I
saw the writing of this letter.'

Cromwell said, 'Ah!' He had pulled the paper apart, smoothed it across
his knee, and looked at it attentively. Then he held it close to the
fire, for no blank paper could trouble the Privy Seal. This was a
child's trick at best.

In the warmth faint lines became visible on the paper; they darkened
and darkened beneath his intent eyes. Behind his back Throckmorton,
with his immense beard and sardonic eyes, rubbed his hands and smiled.
Privy Seal's fingers trembled, but he gave no further sign.

Suddenly he cried, 'What!' and then, 'Both women! both....'

He fell back in the chair, and the sudden quaver of his face, the deep
breath that he drew, showed his immense joy.

'God of my heart! Both women!' he said again.

The rain hurled itself with a great rustling against the casement.
Though it was so early, it was already nearly dark. Cromwell sat up
suddenly and pointed at the boy.

'Take that rat away!' he said. 'Set him in irons, and come back here.'

Throckmorton caught the quivering boy by the ear and led him out at
the door. He took him down a small stair that opened behind a curtain.
At the stair-foot he pulled open a small, heavy door. He still held
his dagger, and he cut the ropes that tied Poins' elbows. With a
sudden alacrity and a grin of malice he kicked him violently.

'Get you gone to your mistress,' he said.

Poins stood for a moment, wavering on his feet. He slipped miserably
in the mud of the park, and suddenly he ran. His grey, straining form
d