I scorn and spit at thy malice!"

The friar's face grew convulsed with rage. "Wretch!" he roared forth,
"darest thou unslip thy hound-like malignity upon great Bungey? Knowest
thou not that he could bid the walls open and close upon thee; that he
could set yon serpents to coil round thy limbs, and yon lizard to gnaw
out thine entrails? Despise not my mercy, and descend to plain sense.
What good didst thou ever reap from thy engine? Why shouldst thou lose
liberty--nay, life--if I will, for a thing that has cursed thee with
man's horror and hate?"

"Art thou Christian and friar to ask me why? Were not Christians
themselves hunted by wild beasts, and burned at the stake, and boiled
in the caldron for their belief? Knave, whatever is holiest men ever
persecute. Read thy Bible!"

"Read the Bible!" exclaimed Bungey, in pious horror at such a
proposition. "Ah, blasphemer, now I have thee! Thou art a heretic and
Lollard. Hollo, there!"

The friar stamped his foot, the door opened; but to his astonishment
and dismay appeared, not the grim jailer, but the Duchess of Bedford
herself, preceded by Nicholas Alwyn. "I told your Grace truly--see,
lady!" cried the goldsmith. "Vile impostor, where hast thou hidden this
wise man's daughter?"

The friar turned his dull, bead-like eyes in vacant consternation from
Nicholas to Adam, from Adam to the duchess. "Sir friar," said Jacquetta,
mildly--for she wished to conciliate the rival seers--"what means this
over-zealous violation of law? Is it true, as Master Alwyn affirms,
that thou hast stolen away and seducted this venerable sage and his
daughter,--a maid I deemed worthy of a post in my own household?"

"Daughter and lady," said the friar, sullenly, "this ill faytor, I have
reason to know, has been practising spells for Lord Warwick and the
enemy. I did but summon him hither that my art might undo his charms;
and as for his daughter, it seemed more merciful to let her attend him
than to leave her alone and unfriended; specially," added the friar with
a grin, "since the poor lord she hath witched is gone to the wars."

"It is true, then, wretch, that thou or thy caitiffs have dared to lay
hands on a maiden of birth and blood!" exclaimed Alwyn. "Tremble!--see,
here, the warrant signed by the king, offering a reward for thy
detection, empowering me to give thee up to the laws. By Saint Dunstan,
but for thy friar's frock, thou shouldst hang!"

"Tut, tut, Master Goldsmith," said the d