Biddell walked quietly through the passengers'
gate by the side of the great doors that led to the court beside
Babington House, closing it behind him. He knew that it would be left
unbarred till eleven o'clock that night. He passed on through the court,
past the house door, to the steward's office, where through heavy
curtains a light glimmered. As he put his hand on the door it opened,
and Marjorie was there. He said nothing, nor did she. Her face was pale
and steady, and there was a question in her eyes. For answer he put the
paper into her hands, and sat down while she read it. The stillness was
as deep here as in the office he had just left.
IV
It was a minute or two before either spoke. The girl read the paper
twice through, holding it close to the little hand-lamp that stood on
the table.
"You see, mistress," he said, "it is as bad as it can be."
She handed back the paper to him; he slid out his spectacles, put them
on, and held the writing to the light.
"Here are the points, you see ..." he went on. "I have annotated them in
the margin. First, that Thomas FitzHerbert be released from Derby gaol
within three days from the leaving of Topcliffe for London, and that he
be no more troubled, neither in fines nor imprisonment; next, that he
have secured to him, so far as the laws shall permit, all his
inheritance from Sir Thomas, from his father, and from any other
bequests whether of his blood-relations or no; thirdly, that Topcliffe
do 'persecute to the death'"--(the lawyer paused, cast a glance at the
downcast face of the girl) "'--do persecute to the death' his uncle Sir
Thomas, his father John, and William Bassett his kinsman; and, in return
for all this, Thomas FitzHerbert shall become her Grace's sworn
servant--that is, Mistress Manners, her Grace's spy, pursuivant,
informer and what-not--and that he shall grant and secure to Richard
Topcliffe, Esquire, and to his heirs for ever, 'the manors of Over
Padley and Nether Padley, on the Derwent, with six messuages, two
cottages, ten gardens, ten orchards, a thousand acres of land, five
hundred acres of meadow-land, six hundred acres of pasture, three
hundred acres of wood, a thousand acres of furze and heath, in Padley,
Grindleford and Lyham, in the parish of Hathersage, in consideration of
eight hundred marks of silver, to be paid to Thomas FitzHerbert,
Esquire, etc.
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