He shook with laughter. "Ay, ay, brave it out!" he cried. "It's what every man Jack of us said you would do! But all's known, man! The Governor read the King's letters in full Council an hour ago. She's the Lady Jocelyn Leigh; she's a ward of the King's; she and her lands are to wed my Lord Carnal!" "She was all that," I replied. "Now she's my wife." "You'll find that the Court of High Commission will not agree with you." My rapier lay across my knees, and I ran my hand down its worn scabbard. "Here's one that agrees with me," I said. "And up there is Another," and I lifted my hat. He stared. "God and my good sword!" he cried. "A very knightly dependence, but not to be mentioned nowadays in the same breath with gold and the King's favour. Better bend to the storm, man; sing low while it roars past. You can swear that you didn't know her to be of finer weave than dowlas. Oh, they'll call it in some sort a marriage, for the lady's own sake; but they'll find flaws enough to crack a thousand such mad matches. The divorce is the thing! There's precedent, you know. A fair lady was parted from a brave man not a thousand years ago, because a favourite wanted her. True, Frances Howard wanted the favourite, whilst this beauty of yours----" "You will please not couple the name of my wife with the name of that adulteress!" I interrupted fiercely. He started, then cried out somewhat hurriedly: "No offence, no offence! I meant no comparisons; comparisons are odorous, saith Dogberry. All at court know the Lady Jocelyn Leigh for a very Britomart, a maid as cold as Dian!" I rose, and began to pace up and down the bit of green before the door. "Master Pory," I said at last, coming to a stop before him, "if, without breach of faith, you can tell me what was said or done at the Council to-day anent this matter, you will lay me under an obligation that I shall not forget."