"I have seen that which purports to be what you inquire after," I replied. Never did I see a man change more suddenly. He seemed to throw off the effects of wine in an instant. "You have seen it? Where?" At this I was silent, for I felt not like giving away my secret. "Speak, Roland, I command you." I started, for it was my father's voice which I had heard, and then I knew that it was he who had entered the room with the duke, and who had hidden his face from me. "Father!" I cried. "Ay, it is I, Roland, and it is I who command you to tell his Grace what he desires to know. I have told him nothing because I have seen nothing, but it is my will that you tell him what you have seen." My father's presence set me wondering greatly. As I have said, I had not seen him since my return to London, and now to discover that he had been in communication with the king's brother staggered me. Rightly or wrongly, I concluded that he could gain no hearing with his Majesty, and so had sought an audience with the duke. "Remember," said the duke, "this story is lies from end to end. Yet I do not say that some one hath not forged such a contract. Moreover, if such a contract, although it is as valueless as the paper on which it is written, were to pass from hand to hand, it would set gossips' tongues wagging, and perchance unhinge affairs of state. You say you have seen this. Where have you seen it?" In spite of myself I could not help pausing, and whether the king's brother had fears concerning what I should do with my knowledge, or whether he desired to enlist my friendship, I know not, but before I could speak, he went on-- "Did you read it?" "Ay, I read it." "What did it say?" "It was a marriage contract between his Majesty and the Welsh girl, Lucy Walters." "You can take your oath to this?" "I can take my oath that I read such words on a piece of parchment." "Signed by Charles Stuart?" "Ay, and by others." "Their names?" "Pierre Rousseau and François Abelard." "You swear this?" "I swear that I saw such a parchment." "But where? Tell me where?" "It was in such a strange place that I cannot describe it. Yet methinks I could find it again." He seemed so carried away by what I had told him that he started to his feet. "Find it, Master Roland Rashcliffe, and bring it to me. If you will do this, you may depend on my smile all your life through." "Obey his Grace, Roland," said my father. "Stay," said the duke, directly my father had spoken, and I thought suspicion gleamed in his eyes. "Your father informs me that your discovery was made before we landed on English shores. You were at Dover at our coming. What have you been doing with yourself since?"