"Ay, does she? and rightly," said the King, "as far as she is personally concerned; but ye see when she comes to speak of our safety, she takes up a very different tone, saying, 'Whatever affects your Majesty, however, immediately grows into a matter of such importance, that although I cannot help regarding what this Lord has written to me as even more foolish than wicked, and in fact only to be laughed at, yet I will venture to send the letter to your Majesty.' She might have spared that word," observed the King, looking up to William Seymour. "You must tell her, sir, always to attend to the euphony of her sentences; and there is nothing that destroys it so much as tautology, producing a cacophony very unpleasant to the ear"--and turning to the letter again, he read on, "'trusting that you will rather forgive an over zeal, though it be troublesome, than a neglect of duty.' That's not amiss, my Lord; we have nothing to reprove in that phrase. Now, sir, what think ye ought to be done?" and he looked slily in Cecil's face, with an expression which the minister did not comprehend. "I should suggest, your Majesty," replied Cecil, "under correction of your wisdom, that a warrant should be immediately issued for the apprehension of this Lord Cobham. Though it is usual to call the council together upon such an occasion, yet your Majesty's undoubted prerogative, and the necessity of haste, well overstep such ceremonies." "True, my Lord, true," said James; "for if a rat-catcher lets all his dogs run on before him, he'll not gripe many of the long-tailed gentry that frequent the holes and corners of old houses." "Assuredly, sire," replied Cecil, gravely. "Do ye not think it's better," continued the King, "for him to go quietly and secretly to work, peering into this hole, and that, and catching a beast here, and a beast there, and baiting his traps artificially with a piece of cheese, or a piece of bacon; as the case may be, without even whispering in the cat's ear to take care where she puts her paws!" "Beyond all doubt, sire," answered Cecil, "that is the most expedient course." "Well, man, well," cried James, bursting into a fit of laughter; "I am the rat-catcher, and by this time, I trust, I have gotten all the brutes safe in the trap." Practised as Cecil was in the ways of a court, powerful as was his command over his own countenance, he could not refrain from an expression of some surprise, not unmingled with curiosity, as to the monarch's meaning. As the intention of James, however, was evidently to astonish him, the courtier may have perhaps displayed even more than he felt, when he exclaimed aloud, "Your Majesty fills me with wonder--I cannot tell what you mean."