If the treason be discovered, it was thy hand that signed the passport; the queen, thou knowest, hates thee, the Woodvilles thirst for thy downfall.
What handle may this give them! Fly! my lord,--fly to the Tower; thou mayst yet be in time; thy wit can screen all that may otherwise be bare.
Save this poor scholar, conceal this correspondence.

Hark ye, lord! frown not so haughtily,--that correspondence names thee as one who hast taken the gold of Count Charolois, and whom, therefore, King Louis may outbuy.

Look to thyself!" A slight blush passed over the pale brow of the great statesman, but he answered with a steady voice, "Friar or layman, I care not which, the gold of the heir of Burgundy was a gift, not a bribe.

But I need no threats to save, if not too late, from rack and gibbet the life of a guiltless man.

I am gone.