It was in her house that he had been taken, and in the very
place she had designed for his safety. If she had but sent him on, as he
wished, back to the hills again, he might never have been taken at all.
These, and a score of other thoughts, had raced continually through her
mind; she felt even as if she were responsible for the manner of his
taking, and for the horror that it had been his father who had
accomplished it; if she had said more, or less, in the hall of that dark
morning; if she had not swooned; if she had said bravely: "It is your
son, sir, who is here," all might have been saved. And now it was
Topcliffe who was come--(and she knew all that this signified)--the very
man at whose mere bodily presence she had sickened in the court of the
Tower. And, last, it was she who had to tell Robin of this.
So tremendous, however, had been the weight of these thoughts upon her,
crowned and clinched (so to say) by finding that the priest was even in
the same cell as that in which she had visited the traitor, that there
was no room any more for bitterness. Even as she waited, with Mr.
Biddell behind her, as the gaoler fumbled with the keys, she was aware
that the last breath of resentment had been drawn.... It was, indeed, a
monstrous Power that had so dealt with her.... It was none other than
the Will of God, plain at last.
* * * * *
She knelt down for the priest's blessing, without speaking, as the door
closed, and Mr.
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