"Then," said he, "know this. I came to my Castle and they shot upon me. So I have gathered together certain of my men and have taken my mother’s Castle of Cramlin and hold it. So that is my news. And when I have the pardon of the Bishop and have paid forfeit, or what it is, I will get more of my men. For my standard is set up in Castle Cramlin and my men come to it from here and there. So in a fortnight or less I will retake my Castle; and I shall hang my brothers-in-law, send my half-brother across the sea, and put my sisters into nunneries. These are my projects." "Body of God!" the old lady said. "By the Body of God!" Then the Cornish knight moved round and stood beside the Princess and spoke to the Young Lovell. "Ah, gentle lord," he said, "may I ask you a fair question?" "By God’s wounds," the Young Lovell said, "you shall ask me none. Who be you?" "A poor knight," Sir Bertram answered, "but the commissioner of the most dread King Henry!" "Then you are a friend of the false Percy," the Young Lovell said. "Get you gone. You are no friend to me." And at that the old Princess cried out: "Body of God! You have taken Castle Cramlin? Then without doubt you have taken Plessey House and Killingworth?" "Madam and gentle Princess," the Young Lovell said, "I have taken and hold them for my mother. And so I will do for all my mother’s lands whether round Morpeth or elsewhere." "Then I have no more to say," the old Princess said. "Get you gone." The Young Lovell remained nevertheless kneeling for a space. "Madam," he said, "it comes to me now that ye have a lawsuit with my mother for certain of those lands." "Aye, and I will have them," she said. "It is not you nor any stiff popinjay shall hold them from me." She leaned out from her chair and cried these words into his face, her own being purple and her eyes bloodshot. So he crossed himself with his hand of bright steel. "Madam," he said, "I cannot talk of lawsuits. They have done me too much wrong." "But I will talk of lawsuits," she said. "By God, I will take a score of my fellows and drive your rats from my Castle of Cramlin!" "Madam and gentle Princess," he answered, "you could not do it with ten score nor yet twenty. For I have there forty of the best fighting men of this North country; and in two days I think I shall have six score. How the rights of this lawsuit may be I do not know. But my mother’s necessity is great. She has languished for a quarter year in prison during which time you have done nothing for her. When the lands fall to me upon my mother’s death you and the Dacres may have them again. That is all that I know. And so I pray our gentle Saviour to have you in His keeping; and so I get me gone."