Oddsfish!. Robert Hugh Benson

across and questioned him before I went to His Majesty. I know nothing of the man, except that he hath been convicted, for I saw the branding in his hand when we examined him. We let him go again immediately."

      "He knows my name?"

      Mr. Chiffinch smiled.

      "We are not so foolish as that, Mr. Mallock. He thinks you have some place at Court; but we did not satisfy him as to your name."

      I said nothing; for there was nothing to say.

      "You had best be very careful, Mr. Mallock," went on the page, standing up again. "You have been mixing a great deal with unpopular folks. You will be of no service to His Majesty at all if you fall under suspicion. You had best go back by water to the Temple Stairs."

      He spoke a little coldly; and I perceived that he thought I had been indiscreet.

      "Well," he said, "we had best be going to His Majesty's lodgings."

      I had flattered myself, up to the present, that I knew His Majesty's capacities tolerably well. I thought him to be an easily read man, with both virtues and vices uppermost, wearing his heart on his sleeve, as the saying is—indolent, witty, lacking all self-control—yet not, as I might say, a deep man. I was to learn the truth, or rather begin to learn it, on this very night.

      * * * * *

      When I entered his private closet he was sitting not where I had seen him before, but at the great table in the midst of the floor, with his papers about him, and an appearance of great industry. He did not do more than look up for an instant, and then down again; and I stood there before him, after I had bowed and been taken no notice of, as it were a scholar waiting to be whipped.

      He was all ready for supper, in his lace, with his hat on his head; and he was writing a letter, with a pair of candles burning before him in silver candlesticks. His face wore a very heavy and preoccupied look; and I was astonished that he paid me no attention.

      He finished at last, threw sand on the paper from the pounce-box, and pushed it aside. Then he leaned his cheeks in his hands, and his elbows on the table, and looked at me. But he did not speak unkindly.

      "Here you are then," he said. "And I hear you bring news from the Old

       Bailey?"

      "I came from there half an hour ago, Sir."

      "Ah! And the verdict was Guilty, Mr. Chiffinch tells me?"

      "Yes, Sir."

      "How did the people take it?"

      "They applauded a great deal, Sir."

      "They applauded, you say. At the end only, or all the while?"

      "They applauded, Sir, whenever any of my Lords made a hit against the

       Catholics."

      "Were there any who did otherwise?"

      "Not one, Sir, that I could hear."

      "The Chief Justice. What did he say?"

      "He made many protestations of devotion to your Majesty, Sir, and to the Protestant Religion. He beat down the Catholics at every point. He permitted none of their witnesses to speak freely."

      The King was silent a moment. Then he went on again.

      "And the prisoners. How did they bear themselves?"

      "They bore themselves like gallant gentlemen, Sir. They fought every point, so far as the Chief Justice would permit them."

      "Did they shew any fear when the verdict was brought in?"

      "None, Sir. They relied upon your Majesty's protection, no doubt."

      Again His Majesty was silent. I still stood on the other side of the table from him, waiting to say what I had to say. The King shewed no sign of having heard what I had last said.

      Then, to my astonishment he turned on me again very sharply.

      "Mr. Mallock," he said, "I have a fault to find with you. Mr. Chiffinch tells me that you were followed from the Court, and that a fellow was asking after you at the gate. You say that you wish to serve me. Well, those who serve me must be very discreet and very shrewd. Plainly, you have not been so in this instance. You are a very young man; and I do not wish to be severe. But you must remember, Mr. Mallock, that such a thing as this must not happen any more."

      My mouth was gone suddenly dry at this attack of His Majesty upon me. I licked my lips with my tongue in readiness to answer; but before I could speak, the King went on again.

      "Now I had a little business to entrust to you; but I am not sure if it be not best to give it to another hand."

      He took up from the table before him a newly sealed little packet that I had not noticed before; and sat weighing it in his hand, as if considering, while his eyes searched my face.

      "Sir—" I began.

      "Yes, Mr. Mallock, I know what you would say. That is all very well; but my servants must not make mistakes such as you have made. It was the height of madness for you to go to the Court at all to-day. I have no doubt that you were seen there, and followed; and you could have been of no service to your friends there, in any case. Mr. Chiffinch tells me he will provide a wherry for you immediately, that you may go back without observation. You must do this. The question before my mind is as to whether you shall take this packet with you, or not. What do you say, Mr. Mallock?"

      All the while he had been speaking, I had been in a torment of misery. As yet I had done little or nothing for His Majesty, after all my commissioning from Rome; and now that the first piece of work was on hand, it was doubtful whether I had not forfeited it by my clumsiness. For the moment I forgot what I had come for. I was all set on acquitting myself well. I was but twenty-one years old!

      "Sir," I cried, "if your Majesty will entrust that to me, you shall never repent it."

      He smiled; but his face went back again to its heaviness. "It is a very difficult commission," he said. "And, what is of more importance than all else is that the packet should fall into no hand other than the one that should have it. For this reason, there is no name written upon it. But I have sealed it with a private signet of my own, both within and without; and you must bear the packet with you until you can deliver it."

      "I understand, Sir."

      "I can send no courier with it, for the reasons of which I have spoken. No man, Mr. Mallock, but you and I must know of its very existence. Neither can I tell you now to whom the packet must be given. You must bear it with you, sir, until you have a message from me, signed with the same seal as that which it bears, telling you where you must take it, and to whom. You understand?"

      "I understand, Sir."

      "You must leave London immediately until your face is forgotten, and until this storm is over. You have a cousin in the country?"

      "Yes, Sir; Mr. Jermyn at Hare Street."

      "You had best lie there for the present; and I can send to you there, so soon as I have an opportunity. Meanwhile you must have this always at hand, and be ready to set out with it, so soon as you hear where you must go with it. That is all plain, Mr. Mallock?"

      "I understand, Sir."

      The King rose abruptly, pushing back his chair; and as he rose I heard the trumpets for supper, in the Court outside.

      "Then you had best be gone. Take it, Mr. Mallock."

      I came round and received the packet; and I kissed the King's hand which he had not given to me as I had come in. My heart was overjoyed at the confidence which he shewed me; and I slipped the packet immediately within my waistcoat. It was square and flat and lay there easily in a little pocket which the tailor had contrived there. Then, as I stood up again, the memory of what I had come for flashed back on me again.

      "Sir," I said, "there is one other matter."

      His Majesty