"Quick, master; the hour is late! I must go while yet the troopers
and couriers and riders, hurrying to and fro, keep the gates from
closing. What wantest thou with Graul?"

"More reverence, child!" growled the friar. "What I want of thee is
briefly told, if thou hast the wit to serve me. This miserable Warner
must himself expound to me the uses and trick of his malignant
contrivance. Thou must find and bring him hither!"

"And if he will not expound?"

"The deputy governor of the Tower will lend me a stone dungeon, and,
if need be, the use of the brake to unlock the dotard's tongue."

"On what plea?"

"That Adam Warner is a wizard, in the pay of Lord Warwick, whom a more
mighty master like myself alone can duly examine and defeat."

"And if I bring thee the sorcerer, what wilt thou teach me in return?"

"What desirest thou most?"

Graul mused, and said, "There is war in the wind. Graul follows the
camp, her trooper gets gold and booty. But the trooper is stronger
than Graul; and when the trooper sleeps it is with his knife by his
side, and his sleep is light and broken, for he has wicked dreams.
Give me a potion to make sleep deep, that his eyes may not open when
Graul filches his gold, and his hand may be too heavy to draw the
knife from its sheath!"