"He craves only a few moments audience, Lord of Douglas; and he says, that, unless he is admitted, a visitor of another nature will wait on you forthwith." "What is the meaning of this?" said Douglas: "Must my privacy be broken in upon, and my mind placed on the rack, at the pleasure of every fanatical devotee? Tell him that I will not be disturbed to-night. But--I think not what I am saying. Admit him. Well, reverend and holy father--madman rather! What is your important business with me?" "That saintly vision has again been with me." "Out upon thee, maniac and liar! There has been no such thing with thee; and thou hast trumped up a story in order to keep the power of the Douglas under thy ghostly and interested controul." "If I am a visionary, Lord, it is for thyself to judge. I speak nothing as of myself, but the words of one that has sent me. If thou darest say they are the visions of a maniac, in future I keep them to myself, and do you abide by the consequences." "Thinkest thou that I will not, or that I dare not abide by any consequences? Hence! Begone!" "Rash precipitate man! thou shall repent this! What interest can I possibly have in whispering these truths in thine ear? Did I ever ask or hint at a favour from thee? Or was aught ever, save thy own welfare, the purport of my messages? Adieu, my lord! There must another commissioner wait on you presently, and one who will elude the most vigilant of your sentinels." "Stay, Benjamin: Thou art, indeed, blameless. If thou hast ought to warn me of, say it and have done, for I am not in a mood to be trifled with." "I have been bid to caution you to look to yourself, for that there is treason within the walls of this castle. Will you answer me one or two queries truly and seriously, that I may know whether the being that commissioned me be a true spirit or a false one?" "I will." "Have you got a private offer to a prodigious amount for the ransom of Lady Jane Howard?" "Monk, thou hast had this from hell.--I have." "Which thou hast rejected, with the secret intent of asking her in marriage yourself, should circumstances concur to favour the device?" "It is false!--false as the source whence thou hadst it." "Ah! Then have I done! my informant is a false one." "Or, if I had, it was some passing thought, which no man can gainsay, and for which none are accountable." "Neither is it true that you visited her in disguise last night?"