"You are a better physician than I, Sir Thomas," said the
prelate--"a soothing falsehood is fitter for a sick-room than an
unpleasing truth."

"How mean you, my reverend lord?" said De Vaux hastily. "Think
you I would tell a falsehood to save the lives of a dozen such as
he?"

"You said," replied the bishop, with manifest symptoms of alarm
--"you said the esquire's master was returned--he, I mean, of the
Couchant Leopard."

"And he IS returned," said De Vaux. "I spoke with him but a few
hours since. This learned leech came in his company."

"Holy Virgin! why told you not of his return to me?" said the
bishop, in evident perturbation.

"Did I not say that this same Knight of the Leopard had returned
in company with the physician? I thought I had," replied De Vaux
carelessly. "But what signified his return to the skill of the
physician, or the cure of his Majesty?"

"Much, Sir Thomas--it signified much," said the bishop, clenching
his hands, pressing his foot against the earth, and giving signs
of impatience, as if in an involuntary manner. "But where can he
be gone now, this same knight? God be with us--here may be some
fatal errors!"