'
'Meddle thou not, even in thy thoughts, with things that are beyond
thee,' said lord Herbert. 'By what signs knewest thou mistress
Dorothy in the dark as she stood talking to the roundhead?'
'There was light enough to know woman from man, my lord.'
'And were there then that night no women in the castle but mistress
Dorothy?'
'Why, who else could it have been, my lord?'
'Why not thine own mother, Tom--rode thither on her broomstick to
deliver her darling?'
Tom gaped with fresh terror at the awful suggestion.
'Now, hear me, Thomas Rees,' his lordship went on.
'Yes, my lord,' answered Tom.
'An' ever it come to my knowledge that thou say thou then saw
mistress Dorothy, when all thou sawest was, as thou knowest, a woman
who might have been thine own mother talking to the roundhead, as
thou callest a man who might indeed have been Caspar Kaltoff in his
shirt sleeves, I will set every devil at my command upon thy back
and thy belly, thy sides and thy soles. Be warned, and not only
speak the truth, as thou hast for a whole half-hour been trying hard
to do, but learn to distinguish between thy fancies and God's facts;
for verily thou art a greater fool than I took thee for, and that
was no small one.
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