Chapter III

JACK NORRIS could make nothing of Master Manton's behaviour when the latter came back from Oxford. There was a mystery even connected with his return. He had left six hours before Dick Kearsley, and yet did not appear at Greenwich until twelve hours after the other's arrival, and he gave no account of himself when he came.

Master Norris had tried to pump Tom Bradshawe; but that too had failed. The boy looked at him, shook his head, and referred him to his master.

Guy's behaviour for the next month or two was equally strange. He scarcely appeared in the pensioners' parlour at all, either at Greenwich or at Westminster when the Court moved there for Parliament; he went long rides alone or with Tom, and evaded all enquiries.

Even when he talked, Jack was aware that there was an odd reserve in all that he said; he appeared preoccupied; he continually checked himself, and he asked curiously irrelevant questions.

On one evening he discussed the names of inns, the origins of them, and their situations; at another time he appeared to listen very eagerly to some idle gossip that Jack was pouring out about people of no importance.

There was one other characteristic that Jack had noticed before, but never in such intensity as now; and that was his extraordinary hardness. One or two incidents took place that especially drove this home.

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The two gentlemen were riding back together from St. Mary Overy where they had been present at the dirge sung over the body of Stephen Gardiner, who had died that day.

Jack was talking, as were most others, of the bishop's life and policy, of his successor in the Lord Chancellor-ship, of Mary's despair at his loss.

" He was penitent enough at his fall from the Faith," said Jack, " in King Henry his time. Did you hear what he said this morning as the priest read the Passion to him. Negavi cum Petro, exivi cum Petro; sed nondum ftevi cum Petro."

Guy grunted.

" And no man can say he was not merciful to others," went on Jack. " He would have no more to do with the burnings at the end. They were forced to send the heretics out of his diocese to be tried."

" And is he the better for that? " observed Guy coldly.

" You would have said so a year ago," remarked Jack.

" Yes, a year ago."

Jack paused, and looked at him.

" You are a hard devil," he said. " God knows I am no favourer "

Then he stopped. He had caught such a look from the other's eyes that he was afraid to go on.

" Then you think it is not to his credit, before God? "

Guy napped his reins impatiently.

" Leave him alone! " he said. " What do we know? Mortuus et sepultus est. Descendit ad inferos. There is the last word."

Again, a week or two later, there had been a question as to the flogging of a kitchen-boy. His fate had hung in the balance till Guy threw himself passionately against mercy.

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" God help us! " he cried. " What is all this pother? Flog the knave. He deserves it, I make no doubt; if not for this, for something else. "

It had turned the balance, and the boy had been whipped.

This developement in Guy was very puzzling to Jack whenever he gave it a thought. It was strangely unlike what he had diagnosed of the other on his arrival, and what he had heard from Tom as to his master's kindness.

He remarked on it one day to Kearsley when they were alone together.

" What has happened to the fellow? " he said. " Did aught happen at Oxford? "

Dick stopped gnawing his nails and glanced at him.

" Happened? " he snarled. " I do not know, and I do not wish to know."

" Do you understand it? "

" No, I do not. Let it alone. What of his Highness? Will Parliament crown him, think you? "

Then the two went off on to politics; and Dick prophesied dark results from Gardiner's death and Paget's succession to him, from Philip's insistence and arrogance, and English stubbornness; he spoke too of more evidence of sedition; and Guy sank into the background.

It was not until towards the end of February that Jack Norris was admitted into one of the secrets that were working in Guy's soul; and even then much remained unexplained.

Guy had not been seen at Court for two days; there was little to be done, as the Queen lived now so much in retirement; and Jack had learned from the Comptroller that Master Manton had been given leave of absence for forty-eight hours. Then he suddenly returned,

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Jack was in his own room, preparing for bed. His doublet was off, and his shoes; and he was warming himself before the fire, for the last time before plunging into the chill bedroom next door. His mind was far away from Guy; it was running indeed as usual, in melancholy fashion, on Magdalene Dacre, with whom he had had a word or two that evening in the long gallery. She had settled down well to Court life now; she took things more lightly, made less fuss about matters which she could not mend, Jack told himself; she would make a fine lady, and a good wife for some lucky devil. He sighed a little, stretching himself before the fire. He had never been so long in love before.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Jack cried out to enter, and the next instant Guy was in the room, and the door shut behind him.

He was in a suit that Jack never remembered having seen before, a gay doublet slashed with crimson silk at the shoulders, a crimson cloak, a great broken feather in his hat and rather tawdry riding-boots of yellow leather. He looked like a gentleman of fortune. He carried a little riding- whip in his hand, and a long sword in a tarnished scabbard trailed from his belt.

Even his brown, pale face bore out the impression; his eyes were extraordinarily bright and hard, his mouth was set tight in a kind of desperate recklessness; and he looked as if he had been drinking. There was an air of shabbiness and smartness about him that would have made it very difficult to identify him as an officer of the Queen's household; and still less as a scholar and a Master of Arts.

Jack stared.

" Christ! " he said.

Guy came swiftly across the room, his eyes fixed hard upon the other's.

Master Manton Serves the Queen

" Can you keep a secret, Jack? "

" I suppose so," said Morris, staring back. " Are you drunk, Guy? "

" Yes; so drunk that I am going to tell you a secret. Will you swear? "

He spoke in a sharp, harsh undertone, still looking steadily into Jack's eyes.

" I swear it by the mass," said Jack deliberately.

Guy kicked aside his sword, took off his cap, and dropped into a chair beside the hearth.

" Very well, sir; then you may listen."

Jack held up his hand for silence a moment, took up his doublet again and slipped it on, pushed his feet into his soft shoes, and sat down too, his chin on his hand, watching across the red glow of the fire the clear-cut profile of the other, the movements of his lips, and the little pulse that beat in his cheek.

" Now listen.

" When I was in Oxford for the burnings, I kept my eyes wide open. It was why we were sent there. There was a man there, Master Kingston — you know him, do you not? He was lately in the Tower. There was another fellow there, Master Christopher Ashton. These too were in company there, with a third — Master Ashton has a house at Abingdon.

" Well, this third — oh! you may have his name; it is Brownrigg — Stephen Brownrigg. He is a pestilent, seditious knave, and has always been so. He is a friend of Master Edward Underbill too "

He paused a moment, as Jack sat up suddenly.

" Yes, sir, Master Edward Underbill," continued Guy, " and there is a pretty nest for you "

" Master Underbill was not there," put in Jack.

" No, but there were these other three, and others

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I will give you the names presently. Well, these three were much together; Ashton and Brownrigg lay at the ' Blue Boar '; and the others I know not where — perhaps at Abingdon.

" When I knew they were together, and heard the talk of the place, I thought I had found my birds; and laid my dog Tom on to them. He has a nose like a hound, that lad "

" And the voice of an angel," put in Jack nervously.

Guy paid no attention, and went on.

" As I came back from the burnings, my lad told me that the birds were flown. I went to see the inn; went back, changed my clothes, told Dick that I was off, and rode away to Abingdon. There was a couple of fellows in the garden; one of them was named Horsey, I learned afterwards; I saw him over the wall; but there was nought to be done; I dared not stay; and I went back to Oxford, to the ' Blue Boar.' I had sent my baggage to London with my man, all except a little bag that Tom carried for me.

" Well, I gave a name; I said that I had come to find Master Ashton and Master Brownrigg who were my friends; but the landlord was mum. He said he knew nothing of where they were gone. Then I knew better than ever that they were there for some private business. I stayed there that night, keeping within doors for fear that folks should know me and speak to me; and to make the landlord think I was in hiding. I dropped a word or two about Abingdon, and Master Ashton's house there; and Master Horsey who I knew had been to the inn; but the fellow shook his head and eyed me like a rat.

" There was no more to be done; so I packed my bag next day and ordered my horses. Then I went to the fellow's room to pay my score; and I said a word or

Master Manton Serves the Queen two about life and death; and the sore inconvenience it was to me to have missed my friends. Still he said nothing, and I went down the steps, thinking I had lost them. As I put my heel to my horse, he ran down from the house, and came up beside me.

" ' You are a true man? ' he said.

" I laughed and said nothing.

" ' Well, you will hear of them at the old place,' he said.

" For a moment I thought all was up. Then I remembered that these dogs have scores of dens, and I tried my luck.

' That is easy saying,' I said, ' but which of them? '

" He looked at me again at that; then he put his hand on my knee.

" ' Well, the " Queen's Arms," ' he said.

" That was a pretty tale, when she hath a thousand, I thought; but I thanked him, and went off. Then I came to town."

Guy stopped and looked questioningly at Jack.

" So far, so good," said Jack.

He was extraordinarily interested in the story. Guy's manner was utterly uncharacteristic; he had lost his slow speech, his changes of expression, his air of boredom. His eyes as he turned were intent and bright; hi sentences rapped out with a tinge of slang in them, and under every tone and word and look some clear purpose was evident.

He laid his fingers together and went on.

" Well, Tom and I went, one or both of us, to every ' Queen's Arms ' in the City, and asked for Mr. Ashton. And we could hear nothing of him. At one place we thought we had; but 'twas another Mr. Ashton from

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Yorkshire. At another place a Mr. Ashton had drunk a pot and gone again. I went to see the man at that, but could get nothing from him; he had never seen the gentleman before, he said; and I could see he spoke truth; but it was our man, for he described him when I said he was my friend.

" Well, then I near gave it up, for how was I to know that the fellow at the ' Blue Boar ' had not fooled me, or that it was not in some other town?

"Then a week ago Tom came to me. I had sent him out to hunt and to see that we had missed nothing; and he told me there was one more 'Queen's Arms' that had been so till lately, at least; and that it was by the water at Lambeth. The name had been painted out, he said, and another over it.

" Well, I rode up the bank next day, and round through the marshes; and came to the inn, as if from the country; and I went in to have a pot."

" And if they had been there and seen you? " put in Jack swiftly.

" Why, none of them know me, but one — no, two, with Master Underbill; but Master Underbill, I knew very well was at Court."

" Which was the one then? "

" Why, Brownrigg. Brownrigg knows me, and I him."

Jack was astonished at the vehemence of the last words; but thought it better not to enquire further.

" Well, sir? " he said.

Guy went on again quietly.

" I went in to have a pot. There was no one there but a couple of watermen. I took the landlord aside into his own parlour, and shut the door. Tom was outside with the horses.

" What of Master Ashton? " I said.

Master Manton Serves the Queen

" He shook his head and looked at me. ' I know nothing of him,' he said. ' Bah! I come from Abingdon,' I said. ' Well, sir, and what of that? ' he said, and put his hands on his hips.

; ' And there is nothing for me? ' I asked. " He told me ' No,' but I thought I knew better. It was just such a place where the dogs would meet; there is just a stable opposite; and no houses for a hundred yards; there is a landing where the wherries put in beside the garden wall, and a little water-gate in the garden itself, so that they can come by water; and there is the way through the marshes behind, so that they can come by land. And then the fellow too — I could see he knew something.

" Well, I saw I could get no more, and of course I might be in the wrong; so I clapped him on the back, and drank my pot. I could see him looking at me; and then presently he said a word.

" ' And if your friends from Abingdon should come for you, sir, and ask for you, what shall I tell them?'

' You may tell them I come from Abingdon,' I said.

1 ' And your name and lodging, sir.' ' My name is No man,' I said, ' and I live at the sign of Nothing.'

" And with that I left him."

Guy paused again; he was breathing a little quickly now, Jack could see, and his nostrils opened and closed. Jack was amazed, and almost shocked too, at the fierceness of that face. It was keener than ever. What a mistake he had made about this man in the first days of their acquaintance!

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" I was back there again on Monday," went on Guy, " and it was the same tale.

" The fellow had not heard of Mr. Ashton yet, and there was no news from Abingdon, or for me to take there.

" I went again to-day; to the City yesterday, and slept there; but heard nothing, and went on to Lambeth this afternoon; but it was to be the last time; I thought I must be in the wrong of it, and that I had lost my birds. And to-day I had news of them."

Guy sprang up so suddenly that Jack leapt in his chair; but he only strode across the hearth with his hands clasped behind him, and went on in a lower voice than ever, with his face in shadow, staring fiercely down at the other, as he talked.

" To-day, there was a message. " The fellow came into the parlour, and this time it was he that shut the door, not I. " He came close up to me.

' You are from Abingdon, Mr. No man,' he said, grinning at me. " I told him, Yes.

' Then there is one who looks for you,' he said, ' who is in town now.'

' Not Mr. Ashton? ' I said.

' ' No, not Master Ashton,' he told me. ' Did you not know that? ' he said.

" Well, I saw there was something there I should have known. So I put a cool face on it.

' I knew it very well, you fool,' I said, ' but I did not know that you did.'

" He seemed comforted at that; so I made a shot at a venture.

And it was not Master Brownrigg either, I suppose,' I asked him.

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" He went white at that; and though he told me it was not Master Brownrigg either, I knew very well that it was. You see they were the only two that I knew had come to town; though indeed that was three months ago.

" Well, then, this was the message. If I came from Abingdon I was to be at the inn alone to-morrow night at ten o'clock. The gentleman who wished to see me, I was told, would not be there then. But the landlord would send to fetch him as soon as I came, if I came alone. There, sir."

Guy ended with a snap, and stood silent.

Jack was bewildered. The tale had come out so concisely; Guy's sentences and manner had been so curiously abrupt, that he scarcely yet took in what was asked of him. He could see that matters looked black enough; that at any rate the mysterious company who eame and went from inn to inn and took landlords at least partly into their confidence, had, considering their secrecy and their past record, a sufficient weight of evidence against them; but he did not yet understand what his part was to be. Surely the precautions already taken by the opposite side put action out of the question!

" But what can we do? " he asked.

Guy snorted with contempt.

" Do! " he said. " Why what is simpler? I shall go there alone at ten o'clock "

" Yes," put in Jack quickly, " and half a dozen of them come, armed "

" Wait," barked Guy. " I go there at ten o'clock, alone, and armed. There was nothing said about that. You bring half a dozen fellows across the river to the landing stage, five minutes later. You must come in a barge; and you must come up slowly, singing as you come. They will think nothing of that. It will be

The Queen's Tragedy a parcel of drunken fellows, and no more. There will be half a dozen more across the marshes; I will send Tom with you to the place to-morrow. You will come up with no lights, and keep about till you see the inn door open; I will be there when I hear them coming; they will certainly come a-horseback, if not by water; and you will see the light from the door. Then you come to shore, and we have them."

" And you will be stabbed meanwhile."

" Bah! If the fellows do not know me, I can hold them in parley, and make mysteries, and if they know me Lord! I can fight, can I not, for three minutes? "

" And there may be only one of them," mused Jack.

Guy nodded

" And what will you get out of them, if you take them? "

" The plot," said Guy.

" By the torture? "

" If they will not speak."

Then Jack put a question that had been on his tongue for some minutes.

" And this Master Brownrigg," he said, " what do you know of him? "

" That is my affair," said Guy very quietly.

There was silence a moment. Jack looked up at the other and saw his face, set like iron, and his hard brighteyes bent on to the floor.

Then he rose.

" Guy! " he said suddenly, " Why are you doing this? "

The eyes of the other shot a look at him.

" What do you think yourself? " he asked.

Master Manton Serves the Queen

" For the sake of her Grace? " murmured Jack uneasily.

Guy laughed suddenly and harshly.

" For whom else? " he cried. " God save her Grace! "

There was silence a moment between the two. Then Jack broke it.

"Well, I will think," he said. "We will talk again to-morrow."

" And I have your word," put in Guy swiftly, looking at him. " Remember this is all my affair. All is under my command? "

He held out a scrap of paper.

" You have my word," said Jack; and took the paper.

When Guy was gone, Jack stood still, staring down at the dying fire, stretching his fingers to it mechanically. The plot whirled through his head in a bewildering maze.

Then he spoke aloud, softly; twisting the list of names still in his hand.

" And what the devil is the matter with Manton? "

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It seemed to Jack as he sat in the stern of the barge on the following night, that it was the most curious adventure in which he had ever been engaged; and the most curious element in it was the spirit of the author. He was utterly at fault as regarded Guy's motives; he knew it was not simple zeal; he was loath to believe it simple cruelty; and yet besides these there seemed no other adequate inspiration for his energy and skill.

The two had had a conference that morning; and a little excursion on the river to identify the inn and the stations to be taken up, and the details had been arranged on the lines suggested on the previous night. Jack had undertaken to gather a dozen men partly from those under his own command, and a few who were off duty and ready for anything where a reward was in question. Half of these had been sent off under Tom as their guide a little after eight o'clock to take up their post in the shelter of a barn a few hundred yards from the inn, and Guy and Jack had gone down with the rest to the stairs. There Guy had engaged a wherry to carry him up to Lambeth, and after seeing his light fade into the black river-haze ahead, Jack had embarked with his men.

They had come now, after a long row, past the lights of the City, up to Lambeth, now and again catching sight of Guy's light ahead; and as the men roared their songs according to orders, Jack was sitting in the stern and looking eagerly out for the landmarks that told him when he would be in view of the inn door. He calculated that Guy would be within by now, and the landlord gone to fetch the stranger; and it was entirely a matter of conjecture as to how long that would take. Guy had argued in the morning that this stranger would be

Master Manton Serves the Queen neither too far nor too near; probably he would wait in one of the houses near the parish church, perhaps three hundred yards away. He would certainly be prepared either to come or to fly; and from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour might be allowed for the time in which the landlord might go and return again with him. But this again was doubtful.

" Cease rowing," said Jack in a low voice, " let her drift."

He had found his station.

On the left, slightly behind him showed the three towers against the night sky — the two of Morton's gateway, and that of the parish church — looking at equal distances from one another, and as.if they formed part of one building. A hundred yards ahead, and fifty to the left, so at least it had seemed in the morning, lay the inn, he knew; and this was indicated now by a tiny patch of light from some window on the ground floor. The door, he knew, was beside it.

" Silence a moment! " said Jack again, straining his eyes this way and that, to see how far the tide had carried them down again.

In the pause of the singing the night was very quiet. Folks were in bed by now for the most part; from across the water behind them came the distant noises of a city turning towards sleep; and beneath the boards of the broad boat came the rush and suck of the outflowing tide. Below, above, and round about lay the vast darkness.

" Sing again," said Jack, " one by one — now all together. Row six strokes."

There was no light in the boat, and he could not see the faces turned to him. He was only half aware of the

The Queen's Tragedy heads against the glimmering sky, the gleam of the brigandines, and the pale patch of the man's face who sat on the stroke thwart; as he strained his eyes forward to the lighted window on the left shore, back to the three towers behind him, and once again to the lighted window.

He had no idea how long he had waited; it might be five minutes or twenty; and yet there was no signal ahead. He wondered what was happening; was the whole affair a hoax, or a trap? He did not know. Guy Manton might be waiting in the inn-parlour still, or his body might be lying with the throat cut under a dust- heap in the yard.

What did it all mean? and what gave him his fierce courage — his zeal to take such a mad risk?

Once or twice again, Jack gave a low order for silence; and during it heard again the suck of the water, the creak of the boards, and the breathing of the man near him. The third time. there was another sound — the stumbling walk of a horse over gravel.

Jack rose swiftly, and sat down again; and gave two or three sharp undertone orders.

" All ready," he said, " row steadily with little noise; keep up the song. Give a curse or two, Ned — keep her head just off the window. Keep it up.... Now all together! " he roared suddenly.

He had seen a tall patch of light suddenly appear and vanish beside the window.

He should not have thought it possible that he could be so much excited, as the boat began to groan and splash on its way to shore. The men were silent now as they tugged the six oars through the water; and the window grew larger every moment; and now the chimneys of the little inn, and the garden wall that ran down to the river began to raise themselves against the low-hung stars. Jack's sword was out now; he gripped the hilt

Master Manton Serves the Queen with one hand, with the point resting on the bottom of the boat; and with the other hand held the wooden edge that laboured under it as the men tore at the oars.

He kept his eyes fixed steadily on the darkness where the light had shown and vanished again; but there was no sign there of any confusion; he was so intent that he was thrown violently forward on his seat, as the prow crashed into the gravelly soil of the landing-place.

Then he was out, shouting; dashing up the little dark slope, while his men clamoured and tumbled behind him.

It was a curious and a very unexpected sight that he saw when he had run past the tethered horse, banged the house-door open, and the second door on the left, and stood blinking in the entrance.

There were three men only in the little parlour.

Close beside him, stood Guy Manton, with a long sword in his right hand and a dagger in his left. He had turned at the sudden noise, and stood snarling and smiling, with his cap pushed back and his legs apart. It was plain he had been keeping the door.

With his back to the window, pressed against it as if in terror stood a stout little man in an apron, his hands flung out as if in expostulation, and with a face of ludicrous alarm and distress.

Half way across the room, holding a long dagger, and crouched as if to spring, stood the third man, as lean as a starved cat, with a white furious face, pale hair falling to his shoulders, and his cloak flung back. This man rose upright, and laughed aloud as Jack appeared with his men behind him. He was a little high-shouldered, Jack noticed.

" By God! " he said. " Here be enough true men! "

He threw his dagger down on the table, and folded his arms dramatically.

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Guy looked at Jack, still grinning, and lowered his own sword.

" And all to take one poor fool," he said.

" And this is all! " exclaimed Jack.

" This is all; but an all that is all damned traitor. Master Brownrigg, I make Master John Norris known to you — another of her Grace's gentlemen."

He gave an ironical bow from one to the other. Master Brownrigg answered instantly.

" I make Master Manton known to you, Master Norris. We were friends at College."

This was very pretty behaviour, thought Jack; and the way in which things should be done. Yet he did not entirely understand it. But he took up the same strain.

" And this is Master Landlord, I suppose. We had best all have a pot, and be marching."

" We will have a look through this gentleman's pockets first," drawled Guy, turning to sheathe his sword. " Will you take Master Landlord out, Jack, and leave me a couple of fellows? "

Stephen leapt to his dagger and seized it.

" Now, by God! I will not have your dog's hands on me," he screamed.

" Disarm him," said Guy, without turning his head.

The piteous work was done in half a minute. A couple of men came forward with cudgels, caught him, knocked the dagger out of his hand, and stood holding him.

" Very good," said Guy. " Now, Jack, if you please. — We will not put him to too much shame."

When Jack got outside again he found that the mounted party had arrived; they had heard the shouts and had ridden up at once. He explained the situation, took them through into the common parlour, received instructions from the landlord as to how liquor could be

Master Manton Serves the Queen obtained, and in five minutes had dismissed them all, with the exception of Tom, who begged to be allowed to see the end, and a couple of his own men.

As they waited Tom said something confusedly, and then stopped.

" Master Brownrigg! Do you know him too, then? " asked Jack.

" I — I have seen him," stammered the boy. " Ask Master Manton, sir."

" Was he truly at College with you? " persisted the other.

Tom looked piteous.

" Ask Master Manton, sir," he knows.

Jack did not understand it at all. Was it credible that the three had been friends at College? And if not, why was this boy so plainly troubled?

A minute later he heard Guy calling to him, and went in at once, leaving the landlord under the care of the other three.

The prisoner was seated at the table, with his cap beside him, staring defiantly out at them all, with a man guarding him.

" Have you found aught? " said Jack.

" Half a broken groat, and three papers," said Guy deliberately, holding out the little bundle.

" There are but two here," said Jack.

Guy nodded.

" The third I keep to myself for the present. Now we should be marching."

It was a very silent voyage through the dark on the slack of the tide to Greenwich. Jack sat forward with the landlord; Master Brownrigg was set in the middle thwart with his arms bound, among the four rowers. Guy and Tom sat together in the stern.

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Once as they came out from under London Bridge Jack could have sworn there was the sound of sobbing from the further end of the boat, and then low talking; but he could see nothing, it was too dark.

As they disembarked, and stood for a moment by the link to help the prisoners out, Jack caught sight of the boy's face. His eyes were oddly bright, and his lips twitched a little.

Then they all went forward together in silence towards the guard-room.

An nescis longas regibus esse manus?

Ov. Her.