"He has secured my Lord and my Lady on his side!" growled Humfrey.

"My Lord is not an Amurath, nor my Lady either," said Richard,
shortly. "As long as I pass for her father I have power to dispose
of her, and I am not going to give another woman's daughter away
without her consent."

"Yet the fellow may have her ear," said Humfrey. "I know him to be
popishly inclined, and there is a web of those Romish priests all
over the island, whereof this Queen holds the strands in her fingers,
captive though she be. I should not wonder if she had devised this
fellow's suit."

"This is the very madness of jealousy, Humfrey," said his father.
"The whole matter was, as thy mother and thy Lord have both told me,
simply a device of my Lady Countess's own brain."

"Babington took to it wondrous naturally," muttered Humfrey.

"That may be; but as for the lady at Wingfield, her talk to our poor
maid hath been all of archdukes and dukes. She is far too haughty to
think for a moment of giving her daughter to a mere Derbyshire
esquire, not even of noble blood. You may trust her for that."

This pacified Humfrey for a little while, especially as the bell was
clanging for the meal which had been unusually deferred, and he had
to hurry away to remove certain marks, which were happily the result
of the sweetbrier weapons instead of that of Babington.