"There, take them away, take them away," cried the King, disappointed; for he had fancied that his skill and dexterity had puzzled out a connexion between the schemes formerly revealed to him by his fair cousin, and those in which Lord Cobham had been lately engaged. "Away with them! away with them!--and now we will proceed to that other business." "I beseech you, sir," said Anne of Denmark, as the prisoners were removed from the room; "to suffer me and these ladies to retire, if you have any more such matters to inquire into. They neither please nor befit us; and our fair cousin here is not so well as to endure such things with safety." "Ay, but she must stay--she must stay," cried the King; "for this is a matter regarding which she only can speak. Call Mr. Seymour here, and Sir Lewis Lewkenor. We must hear how all this befel." "I beseech you, sire, let me go," said Arabella. "I have been frightened and agitated already this morning, by the quarrel of these gentlemen. I have been also agitated by the questions your Majesty has asked. I have told you all that occurred." "No, no, that wont do," cried James; "you must repeat it here in order." "Then let me do so, sire, at once," said Arabella. "The first dispute was, which should place me on my horse, and Mr. Seymour having done so, Sir Lewis reproached him for taking what he called his place, saying that his office in your Majesty's court entitled him to it. Mr. Seymour replied, however, that your commands to escort me were first given to him: that his rank, and the fact of his bearing in his veins the same blood as your Majesty, however distantly, gave him precedence over any simple knight, and that he should think he was wanting even in duty to you if he did not take upon him the post which you had assigned him." "Well, what more, what more?" cried the King, just as William Seymour, followed by an usher, entered the drawing-room, and approached the circle. "There were after words, I think?" "But few, sire," replied Arabella, the warm blood coming up into her cheek; "Mr. Seymour rode for some way on my right hand, while Sir Lewis on the left seemed sullen and discontented. At length, however, he came round and insisted that Mr. Seymour should give up that place to him." "There he was wrong," cried the King; "there he was wrong. What more, lady?" "Really, I cannot justly tell, sire," replied Arabella; "I was much frightened, and not a little displeased; and after some sharp words between the two gentlemen, Mr. Seymour yielded, I think out of pity to me, and came to the other side." "There he was right," said James. "But where is Sir Lewis Lewkenor! Have you called him, usher?" "He is in bed, your Majesty," said the other, "and humbly begged your Majesty would excuse him." "In bed?" exclaimed the King; "why, what ails him? He has not got the plague, has he?" "No, your Majesty," replied the usher; "he's somewhat badly wounded in the shoulder."