'How can you say that?' cried I. 'You have no right to kill him.' And with that I began trembling so violently as to shake the chair in which I was sitting. He perceived it, and drew nearer. 'Sir Hubert is in my power,' he said, in low, meaning tones. 'He is in fact a prisoner in this house, even now lying in our dungeon. For, let me tell you, we have a dungeon down amongst the cellars. Aye, and a gallows, too, in the inner yard. If I hold up my hand, so----' he made a gesture, 'my men will bear him to the gallows, where he will die.' I interrupted him with a cry of terror-stricken anguish. 'You can save him,' he said quickly. 'You have it in your power to save him. Dear Margaret,' and again he endeavoured to take my hand, whilst a fawning, obsequious tone succeeded the fiercer one, 'you, and no one else, can prevent his terrible fate.' 'How? How can I prevent it?' and I looked up appealingly into the hardest and most cruel face it has ever been my lot to encounter. Sir Claudius took my hand, my most unwilling hand, in his, pressing it tenderly. 'My dear, I love you,' he said. 'Nay, don't wince, for in that fact lies the man's salvation. If you will try ever so little to return my love, if you will promise to marry me, Sir Hubert shall live. Nay, more, upon the day on which we are married he shall be liberated.' 'Oh, but I cannot! I cannot marry you!' I sobbed distractedly. 'I cannot!' An ugly look came into his face. 'Sir Hubert will hang on our gallows to-morrow morning,' said he, slowly. 'No! no!' I cried. 'You dare not do such a thing! The law----' 'Has no power against me here, in this lonely country, amongst my servants and dependents,' he interrupted. 'The officers of the law will have their eyes directed towards Queen Mary, and that other foolish young woman, who aped----' 'Do not speak about Queen Jane in that way!' exclaimed I. 'Unless,' I added, 'you mean me to hate you even more than I do.' 'I shall speak as I please,' he muttered sulkily, 'What I mean to tell you is this. Out here in my own country, at this time when all the fighting-men are otherwise engaged, I can do almost what I like, and if I choose that Sir Hubert shall die, he shall.' The horrible conviction came upon me as he spoke, that it was true; in the then distracted state of England, even a big crime, such as murdering Sir Hubert, could be done by a powerful miscreant like Sir Claudius, with impunity. Still in desperation I cried out-- 'You dare not! You dare not!' 'I dare,' he returned, 'for, look you, if he appealed to the law, I could but turn him over to the law, accusing him as I did so of high treason. They would behead him then, sure enough. Yes, I say, they would behead him.' 'No! no! no!' I cried. 'But I repeat, they would,' he said. 'The penalty of high treason is execution----'