‘My lord,’ answered Dorothy, ’I look to you to tell me so much, for before God I know not.’

‘Nay, child! thou need’st not buttress thy words with an oath,’ said his lordship.  ’Thy fair eyes are worth a thousand oaths.  But to the question:  tell me wherefore didst thou not let the young man go when first thou spied him?  Wherefore didst ring the alarm-bell?  Thou sawest he was upon his own mare, for thou knewest her—­didst thou not?’

’I did, my lord; but he had no business there, and I was of my lord Worcester’s household.  Here I am not Dorothy Vaughan, but my lady’s gentlewoman.’

’Then why didst thou go to his room thereafter?  Didst thou not know it for the most perilous adventure maiden could undergo?’

‘Perilous it hath indeed proved, my lord.’

‘And might have proved worse than perilous.’

‘No, my lord.  Other danger was none where Richard was,’ returned Dorothy with vehemence.

’It beareth a look as if mayhap thou dost or mightst one day love the young man!’ said lord Herbert in slow pondering tone.

’My spirit hath of late been driven to hold him company, my lord.  It seemed that, save Caspar, I had no friend left but him.  God help me! it were a fearful thing to love a fanatic!  But I will resist the devil.’

’Truly we are in lack of a few such devils on what we count the honest side, Dorothy!’ said lord Herbert, laughing.  ’Not every man that thinks the other way is a rogue or a fool.  But thou hast not told me why thou didst run the heavy risk of seeking him in the night.’

’I could not rest for thinking of him, my lord, with that terrible wound in the head I had as good as given him, and from whose effects I had last seen him lie as one dead.  He was my playmate, and my mother loved him.’

Here poor Dorothy broke down and wept, but recovered herself with an effort, and proceeded.

’I kept starting awake, seeing him thus at one time, and at another hearing him utter my name as if entreating me to go to him, until at last I believed that I was called.’

‘Called by whom, Dorothy?’

’I thought—­I thought, my lord, it might be the same that called Samuel, who had opened my ears to hear Richard’s voice.’

‘And it was indeed therefore thou didst go?’

’I think so, my lord.  I am sure, at least, but for that I would not have gone.  Yet surely I mistook, for see what hath come of it,’ she added, turning to lady Margaret.

’We must not judge from one consequence where there are a thousand yet to follow,’ said his lordship. ’—­And thou sayest, when thou didst enter the room thou didst find no one there?’

‘I say so, my lord, and it is true.’

’That I know as well as thou.  What then didst thou think of the matter?’

’I was filled with fear, my lord, when I saw the bedclothes all in a heap on the floor, but upon reflection I hoped that he had had the better in the struggle, and had escaped; for now at least he could do no harm in Raglan, I thought.  But when I found the door was locked,—­I dare hardly think of that, my lord; it makes me tremble yet.’