impossible to express. His only conjecture was that the king had
discovered their retreat, and taken this measure to break off the
intercourse he had so sternly denounced. Full of these ideas, he
hastily remounted, and stopped not till once more at the gates of the
Tower. Hastening to Edward's closet, the moment he saw the king, he
exclaimed, in great emotion, "My liege, my liege, do not at this hour,
when I have need of my whole energy to serve thee, do not madden my
brain, and palsy my arm. This old man--the poor maid--Sibyll--
Warner,--speak, my liege--only tell me they are safe; promise me they
shall go free, and I swear to obey thee in all else! I will thank
thee in the battlefield!"

"Thou art mad, Hastings!" said the king, in great astonishment.
"Hush!" and he glanced significantly at a person who stood before
several heaps of gold, ranged upon a table in the recess of the room.
"See," he whispered, "yonder is the goldsmith, who hath brought me a
loan from himself and his fellows! Pretty tales for the city thy
folly will send abroad!"

But before Hastings could vent his impatient answer, this person, to
Edward's still greater surprise, had advanced from his place, and
forgetting all ceremony, had seized Hastings by the hem of his
surcoat, exclaiming,--

"My lord, my lord, what new horror is this? Sibyll!--methought she
was worthless, and had fled to thee!"

"Ten thousand devils!" shouted the king, "am I ever to be tormented by
that damnable wizard and his witch child? And is it, Sir Peer and Sir
Goldsmith, in your king's closet that ye come, the very eve before he