“Then wherefore persist in troubling me?” rejoined Hugh Calveley.  “Have I not good cause for my dislike of you?  You have disappointed the expectations I had formed of you.  You failed me when I put your professions to the test.  You thwarted my design at the moment when its success was certain, and when the tyrant was completely in my power.  But for you I should not be here, loaded with these fetters; or if I were, I should be consoled by the thought that I had liberated my country from oppression, instead of being crushed by the sense of failure.  What seek you from me, miserable time-server?  Have you not had your reward for the service you have rendered the King?  Is he not grateful enough?  I have served as your stepping-stone to promotion.  What more can I do?”

“You can cease to do me injustice,” returned Sir Jocelyn.  “Honours, procured as mine have been, are valueless, and I would rather be without them.  I sought them not.  They have been forced upon me.  Look at the matter fairly, and you will see that all these consequences, whether for good or ill, have sprung from your own desperate act.”

“It may be so,” rejoined the Puritan.  “I will not dispute it.  But though ill has accrued to me, and good to you, I would not change positions with you.  You will wear the tyrant’s fetters for ever.  I shall soon be free from mine.”

“Have you nothing to say concerning your daughter?” demanded the young man.

“Nothing,” replied the Puritan, with an expression of deep pain, which, however, he checked by a mighty effort.  “I have done with the world, and desire not to be brought back to it.”

“And you refuse to be freed from your chains?”

“My sole desire, as I have said, is to be freed from you.”

“That wish, at least, shall be granted,” replied Sir Jocelyn, as, with a sad heart, he departed.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The Secret.

Thrice was the guard relieved during that long night, and as often was the prisoner visited.  On the first occasion, he was found to be still engaged with his Bible, and he so continued during the whole time the man remained in the vault.

The next who came discovered him on his knees, praying loudly and fervently, and, unwilling to disturb him, left him at his devotions.

But the third who entered was struck with terror at the prisoner’s appearance.  He had risen from the ground, and was standing as erect as the fetters would permit, with his hands outstretched, and his eyes fixed on vacancy.  He was muttering something, but his words were unintelligible.  He looked like one who beheld a vision; and this impression was produced upon the man, who half expected some awful shape to reveal itself to him.  But whatever it might be, spirit of good or ill, it was visible to the Puritan alone.