"You judge me rightly, my lord; you judge me rightly," replied Sir John Hotham. "I have always been a friend equally to my country and my king; and deeply do I lament the discord which has arisen between his majesty and the parliament. But I see you understand my conduct well, my lord, and need not be told that I entertain very different principles from the men who have driven things to this strait. I vow to God I have always entertained the highest affection and sense of duty towards his majesty, and lament deeply to think that my refusing to open the gates of Hull, when the king sent to require reception for his forces, will always be considered as the beginning, and perhaps the cause, of this civil war, whereas I did it in my own defence." "Indeed!" exclaimed the earl. "The king is not aware that such is the case; for, when many people assured his majesty that there must have been some error in the business, he has replied often, 'God grant it be so; for I always held Sir John Hotham to be a man of singular uprightness, and well affected towards myself, until he ventured to shut his gates in the king's face.'" "Ay, air," exclaimed the governor; "both the king and myself have been greatly deceived; and I will now tell you what I never told to any one, which I will beseech you, when we find means to set you free, to report to his majesty, that he may judge favourably of me. There were certain men, whom I have since discovered to be arrant knaves, and employed by the more furious persons of the parliament to deceive me, who assured me, with every protestation of concern for my safety, that it was the king's intention, as soon as he got into Hull, to hang me without form of trial further than a mere summary court-martial." "It was false, sir! it was false, altogether, I assure you!" replied the earl. "Nothing was ever farther from the king's intention." "I know it--I know it now," answered Sir John Hotham: "but I believed it at the time. However, to speak of what more nearly concerns you, my lord, I came hither to tell you, that, as you have so frankly put yourself in in hands, I will in no degree betray your trust; and I much wish you to consider in what way, and upon what pretext, I can set you at liberty, so that you may safely go whithersoever you will. But there is one thing you must remember, that the secret of who and what you are, and of my wish to treat you kindly, must be kept inviolably between you and me; for there is not a man here whom I can trust, and especially my own son, who is one of the worst and most evil-intentioned men towards the king and his own father in all the realm."