"I wish you would keep close here though," muttered Dalton; "you'll be
meeting the villain Burrell before----"
"I would fain encounter Sir Willmott Burrell once again, and make him
pay the traitor's forfeit."
"Peace--peace! give Burrell rope enough to hang himself. He'll swing as
high as Haman ere long. Robin told me of the coward's treachery."
"I wish Robin had not accompanied him to London," exclaimed Walter; "I
hate people to carry two faces. But my wonder is that Burrell would
trust him."
"Just because he could not help himself," retorted Robin. "He wanted a
clever lad who had understanding. His own valet was in France on some
business or another mighty mysterious; and a gentleman like him, who has
a good character and a foul conscience, a good head and a bad heart, has
need of a man of talent, not a loon, about his person. To do full
justice, however, to his discretion, he treated me to as few of his
secrets as he could, and I endeavoured to save him trouble by finding
them all out."
The Buccaneer laughed aloud, but the high-souled Cavalier looked
serious.
"Ah! ah!" said Dalton, "you never did relish machinations, and it is
well you are not left to yourself in this plan of mine: honour is not
the coin to take to a villain's market."
"'Tis the only coin I will ever deal in, Captain; and I told you before
I left Cologne, that on no other condition would I accompany you to
England, except that of being held clear of every act unbefitting a
gentleman or a soldier."
"Young sir," replied Dalton, "when you were indeed young, and long
before you took your degree in morality at the rambling court of the
second Charles, did I ever counsel you to do aught that your--that, in
short, you might not do with perfect honour? I know too well what it is
to sacrifice honour to interest ever to wish you to make the trial. As
for me, I am low enough in character----"
"My kind preserver! my brave friend!" interrupted Walter, touched at his
change of manner. "Forgive such unworthy, such unmerited suspicion. This
is not the first time I have had to learn your kindly care for me. But
for you----"
"Well, there, there boy--I love to call you boy still; I can bear my own
shame, but I could never bear yours."
Dalton paused, apparently with a view to change the subject: the
Cavalier observed-"You quarrel with our young king's morality?"