That a little blood had been shed was shown by the state of his sword
point, but Antony had disclaimed being hurt when the master of the
house came up, and in the heat of the rebuke the father and son had
hardly noticed that he had thrown a kerchief round his left hand ere
he moved away.

Before dinner was over, word was brought in from the door that Master
Will Cavendish wanted to speak to Master Humfrey. The ladies' hearts
were in their mouths, as it were, lest it should be to deliver a
cartel, and they looked to the father to interfere, but he sat still,
contenting himself with saying, as his son craved license to quit the
board, "Use discretion as well as honour."

They were glad that the next minute Humfrey came back to call his
father to the door, where Will Cavendish sat on horseback. He had
come by desire of Babington, who had fully intended that the
encounter should be kept secret, but some servant must have been
aware of it either from the garden or the park, and the Countess had
got wind of it. She had summoned Babington to her presence, before
the castle barber had finished dealing with the cut in his hand, and
the messenger reported that "my Lady was in one of her raging fits,"
and talked of throwing young Humfrey into a dungeon, if not having
him hung for his insolence.

Babington, who had talked to his friends of a slip with his hunting-
knife while disembowelling a deer, was forced to tell the fact in
haste to Cavendish, the nearest at hand, begging him to hurry down
and advise Humfrey to set forth at once if he did not wish his
journey to be unpleasantly delayed.