"What needs so fruitless a
question?"

"Pardon me, my lord," said Varney; "the use lies here. Men will wager
their lands and lives in defence of a rich diamond, my lord; but were it
not first prudent to look if there is no flaw in it?"

"What means this?" said Leicester, with eyes sternly fixed on his
dependant; "of whom dost thou dare to speak?"

"It is--of the Countess Amy, my lord, of whom I am unhappily bound to
speak; and of whom I WILL speak, were your lordship to kill me for my
zeal."

"Thou mayest happen to deserve it at my hand," said the Earl; "but speak
on, I will hear thee."

"Nay, then, my lord, I will be bold. I speak for my own life as well as
for your lordship's. I like not this lady's tampering and trickstering
with this same Edmund Tressilian. You know him, my lord. You know he had
formerly an interest in her, which it cost your lordship some pains to
supersede. You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit
against me in behalf of this lady, the open object of which is to drive
your lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy
marriage, the point to which my lady also is willing, at any risk, to
urge you."

Leicester smiled constrainedly. "Thou meanest well, good Sir Richard,
and wouldst, I think, sacrifice thine own honour, as well as that of any
other person, to save me from what thou thinkest a step so terrible. But
remember"--he spoke these words with the most stern decision--"you speak
of the Countess of Leicester."

"I do, my lord," said Varney; "but it is for the welfare of the Earl of
Leicester. My tale is but begun. I do most strongly believe that this
Tressilian has, from the beginning of his moving in her cause, been in
connivance with her ladyship the Countess."

"Thou speakest wild madness, Varney, with the sober face of a preacher.
Where, or how, could they communicate together?"

"My lord," said Varney, "unfortunately I can show that but too well.
It was just before the supplication was presented to the Queen, in
Tressilian's name, that I met him, to my utter astonishment, at the
postern gate which leads from the demesne at Cumnor Place."

"Thou met'st him, villain! and why didst thou not strike him dead?"
exclaimed Leicester.

"I drew on him, my lord, and he on me; and had not my foot slipped, he
would not, perhaps, have been again a stumbling-block in your lordship's
path."

Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise. At length he ans