Nay,then,my lord,I will be bold.I speak for my own life as well as for your lordship's.I like not this lady's tampering and trickstering with this same Edmund Tressilian.You know him,my lord.You know he had formerly an interest in her,which it cost your lordship some pains to supersede.You know the eagerness with which he has pressed on the suit against me in behalf of this lady,the open object of which is to drive your lordship to an avowal of what I must ever call your most unhappy marriage,the point to which my lady also is willing,at any risk,to urge you.Leicester smiled constrainedly.Thou meanest well,good Sir Richard,and wouldst,I think,sacrifice thine own honour,as well as that of any other person,to save me from what thou thinkest a step so terrible.But remember--he spoke these words with the most stern decision--you speak of the Countess of Leicester.I do,my lord,said Varney;but it is for the welfare of the Earl of Leicester.My tale is but begun.I do most strongly believe that this Tressilian has,from the beginning of his moving in her cause,been in connivance with her ladyship the Countess.Thou speakest wild madness,Varney,with the sober face of a preacher.Where,or how,could they communicate together?My lord,said Varney,unfortunately I can show that but too well.It was just before the supplication was presented to the Queen,in Tressilian's name,that I met him,to my utter astonishment,at the postern gate which leads from the demesne at Cumnor Place.Thou met'st him,villain!and why didst thou not strike him dead?exclaimed Leicester.
I drew on him,my lord,and he on me;and had not my foot slipped,he would not,perhaps,have been again a stumbling-block in your lordship's path.Leicester seemed struck dumb with surprise.At length he answered,What other evidence hast thou of this,Varney,save thine own assertion?--for,as I will punish deeply,I will examine coolly and warily.Sacred Heaven!--but no--I will examine coldly and warily-coldly and warily.He repeated these words more than once to himself,as if in the very sound there was a sedative quality;and again compressing his lips,as if he feared some violent expression might escape from them,he asked again,What further proof?Enough,my lord,said Varney,and to spare.I would it rested with me alone,for with me it might have been silenced for ever.
But my servant,Michael Lambourne,witnessed the whole,and was,indeed,the means of first introducing Tressilian into Cumnor Place;and therefore I took him into my service,and retained him in it,though something of a debauched fellow,that I might have his tongue always under my own command.He then acquainted Lord Leicester how easy it was to prove the circumstance of their interview true,by evidence of Anthony Foster,with the corroborative testimonies of the various persons at Cumnor,who had heard the wager laid,and had seen Lambourne and Tressilian set off together.In the whole narrative,Varney hazarded nothing fabulous,excepting that,not indeed by direct assertion,but by inference,he led his patron to suppose that the interview betwixt Amy and Tressilian at Cumnor Place had been longer than the few minutes to which it was in reality limited.
And wherefore was I not told of all this?said Leicester sternly.Why did all of ye--and in particular thou,Varney--keep back from me such material information?Because,my lord,replied Varney,the Countess pretended to Foster and to me that Tressilian had intruded himself upon her;and I concluded their interview had been in all honour,and that she would at her own time tell it to your lordship.Your lordship knows with what unwilling ears we listen to evil surmises against those whom we love;and I thank Heaven I am no makebate or informer,to be the first to sow them.You are but too ready to receive them,however,Sir Richard,replied his patron.How knowest thou that this interview was not in all honour,as thou hast said?Methinks the wife of the Earl of Leicester might speak for a short time with such a person as Tressilian without injury to me or suspicion to herself.Questionless,my lord,answered Varney,Had I thought otherwise,I had been no keeper of the secret.But here lies the rub--Tressilian leaves not the place without establishing a correspondence with a poor man,the landlord of an inn in Cumnor,for the purpose of carrying off the lady.He sent down an emissary of his,whom I trust soon to have in right sure keeping under Mervyn's Tower--Killigrew and Lambsbey are scouring the country in quest of him.The host is rewarded with a ring for keeping counsel--your lordship may have noted it on Tressilian's hand--here it is.This fellow,this agent,makes his way to the place as a pedlar;holds conferences with the lady,and they make their escape together by night;rob a poor fellow of a horse by the way,such was their guilty haste,and at length reach this Castle,where the Countess of Leicester finds refuge--I dare not say in what place.Speak,I command thee,said Leicester--speak,while I retain sense enough to hear thee.Since it must be so,answered Varney,the lady resorted immediately to the apartment of Tressilian,where she remained many hours,partly in company with him,and partly alone.I told you Tressilian had a paramour in his chamber;I little dreamed that paramour was--Amy,thou wouldst say,answered Leicester;but it is false,false as the smoke of hell!Ambitious she may be--fickle and impatient--'tis a woman's fault;but false to me!--never,never.
The proof--the proof of this!he exclaimed hastily.
Carrol,the Deputy Marshal,ushered her thither by her own desire,on yesterday afternoon;Lambourne and the Warder both found her there at an early hour this morning,Was Tressilian there with her?said Leicester,in the same hurried tone.