“I am glad on’t, my Lord,” answered Bernard. There was a pause. “Hem!” said Lord Burleigh. Bernard looked up, but continued silent. “There is a rumour of a new plot toward,” said Lord Burleigh. “Hast thou heard aught concerning it?” “Thou knowest I have not been an idler, my Lord,” answered Bernard, “and have well earned the small allowance thou makest me, and which thou hast thyself oft wanted to double. Moreover--” “Good!” exclaimed Lord Burleigh, testily. “But the matter!” “Thou wilt doubtless recollect, my Lord,” pursued Bernard, “that ’twas I first informed thee of the great conspiracy in the North, which cost my Lord Westmoreland his head. Afterwards, I told thee of the plot to wed the Duke of Norfolk to the Queen of Scots.” “Well, well,” muttered Burleigh. “Did not I refuse the rich guerdons thou wouldst have dealt me, my Lord, and give all my pains for nought?” asked Bernard. “Thou didst so, and thereby approved thyself a right loyal subject,” said the minister. “I say nothing, my Lord, of the early tidings I gave thee of my Lord Leicester’s marriage with my Lady Sheffield,” continued Bernard, “because I sought therein to gratify your Lordship, rather than serve the state.” “What doth all this preface portend?” demanded the minister, in an abrupt tone. “Thou hast thyself said, my Lord, that I have approved myself a right loyal subject,” answered Bernard. “Thou knowest, too, that I have served the state, not for gain’s sake, but oft at mine own proper cost, out of pure love. Will it be ever thought, then, that I, having these merits, would seek your Lordship’s ear for one of the state’s enemies?” “’Twould never be so thought by me,” replied Burleigh, less impatiently. “There is now in Newgate, my Lord, on a state warrant, one whom I know to have done no crime,” said Bernard. “I would humbly sue to your Lordship, on the strength of my good services, that he may be set free.” “Innocent, is he?” returned Burleigh. “Well, I would not deny thee a small thing. How doth he name himself?” “Sir Edgar de Neville,” answered Bernard. The minister’s brow darkened. “Ah!” he cried. Bernard, looking up, met his scowl with an unruffled brow, but ventured no reply. “Innocent, is he?” reiterated Burleigh. “These are bold speeches, Master Gray. Why, the man hath murderously slain one of thy fellows, is bound up with the Spaniard, and, to crown all, is a pestilent Papist. I have this on the word of--” “A rank knave, my Lord,” said Bernard, seeing him hesitate to name his authority: “even of Master Shedlock, his inveterate enemy.”