"Searched you well?--but it boots not to ask that. It doth seem passing strange. Little things, trifles, slip out of one's ken, and one does not think it matter for surprise; but how so bulky a thing as the Seal of England can vanish away and no man be able to get track of it again--a massy golden disk--" Tom Canty, with beaming eyes, sprang forward and shouted: "Hold, that is enough! Was it round?--and thick?--and had it letters and devices graved upon it?--Yes? Oh, _now_ I know what this Great Seal is, that there's been such worry and pother about! An ye had described it to me, ye could have had it three weeks ago. Right well I know where it lies; but it was not I that put it there--first." "Who then, my liege?" asked the Lord Protector. "He that stands there--the rightful king of England. And he shall tell you himself where it lies--then you will believe he knew it of his own knowledge. Bethink thee, my king--spur thy memory--it was the last, the very _last_ thing thou didst that day before thou didst rush forth from the palace, clothed in my rags, to punish the soldier that insulted me." A silence ensued, undisturbed by a movement or a whisper, and all eyes were fixed upon the new-comer, who stood with bent head and corrugated brow, groping in his memory among a thronging multitude of valueless recollections for one single little elusive fact, which, found, would seat him upon a throne--unfound, would leave him as he was for good and all--a pauper and an outcast. Moment after moment passed--the moments built themselves into minutes--still the boy struggled silently on, and gave no sign. But at last he heaved a sigh, shook his head slowly, and said, with a trembling lip and in a despondent voice:-- "I call the scene back--all of it--but the Seal hath no place in it." He paused, then looked up, and said with gentle dignity, "My lords and gentlemen, if ye will rob your rightful sovereign of his own for lack of this evidence which he is not able to furnish, I may not stay ye, being powerless. But--" "Oh folly, oh madness, my king!" cried Tom Canty in a panic; "wait!--think! Do not give up!--the cause is not lost! nor _shall_ be, neither! List to what I say--follow every word--I am going to bring that morning back again, every hap just as it happened. We talked--I told you of my sisters, Nan and Bet--ah yes, you remember that; and about my old grandam--and the rough games of the lads of Offal Court--yes, you remember these things also; very well, follow me still, you shall recall everything. You gave me food and drink, and did with princely courtesy send away the servants, so that my low breeding might not shame me before them--ah yes, this also you remember."