“How comes it that I see thee with this rout, Ugo?” he cried, “and hear thy voice raised against me? Art thou a traitor?”
“No, an enemy to traitors,” rejoined the esquire. “I am sent to arrest you, my lord, and I call upon Sir John Gage and all others who are nigh to aid me.”
“Thou sent to arrest me!” cried Seymour, with a scornful laugh. “Could none other but my own servant be found to do the office?”
“I sought it, and it was granted me, in consideration of services I have rendered to the lord protector,” rejoined Ugo. “This is my vengeance for the wrong you did me three years ago. I have revealed all your treasonable practices to the council, and in return they have charged me to arrest you.”
“Have you the warrant?” demanded the constable.
“‘T is here,” replied Ugo, producing it. “My lord admiral, I arrest you of high treason in the name of the lord protector and the council. Resistance will avail you nothing. Yield yourself, therefore, a prisoner, and deliver up your sword.”
“Take it to thy heart, vile traitor!” cried Seymour, plunging his rapier with such force into the esquire’s body that the hilt smote against his breast. Uttering a fearful cry, Ugo fell backwards, and, unable to keep his seat in the saddle, rolled heavily to the ground, where he lay, breathing curses against his slayer.
For a moment, the yeomen of the guard, who had witnessed this terrible act of retribution, looked on in horror and consternation, but the next instant they closed round the admiral, and seizing his bridle, and presenting their halberds at his breast, prevented him from making any further movement. Sir John Gage also interposed.
“Give me the warrant,” he shouted.
“Take it,” said the dying man to the halberds who approached him. “It, will avenge me.”
“My lord admiral,” said Gage, as he received the parchment, which was sprinkled with blood, “I must now discharge the office of the man you have just wounded unto death. You are my prisoner. Dismount, I pray you.”
Seeing resistance fruitless, the admiral complied. As he alighted, he found himself close beside his bleeding victim, whose dying gaze was fixed upon him.
“Take charge of the prisoner,” said Sir John Gage, “and conduct him to the palace, that the lord protector’s pleasure concerning him may be ascertained.”
While the guard were placing themselves on either side of the admiral, Ugo raised himself by a last effort, and cried, “You cannot escape now. I vowed that your head should fall upon the block—and so it will. I die content.”
And with a laugh of exultation, he fell backwards and expired.
“Vindictive wretch! thou hast well deserved thy fate!” ejaculated the constable. “Remove the body to Mauger’s vault yonder—beneath the Bloody Tower,” he continued. “‘T is a fitting place for it. And let these sanguinary stains be effaced. Ere long, in all likelihood, his majesty will pass this way. Now, bring on the prisoner. To the palace!”
With this, he rode slowly up the ascent, followed by the admiral, whose courage seemed wholly unshaken by the sudden reverse he had experienced, and who marched with a firm step and haughty front in the midst of the guard.
Dismounting at the grand portal, the constable caused his prisoner to be taken in, and then entering himself, proceeded with the admiral and the guard to that part of the palace where he had left the king, and where he was informed that his majesty still remained.
As may be imagined, the arrest of so important a personage as the admiral caused a vast deal of excitement amongst all those who saw him brought in. Strange looks and whispers were interchanged. Seymour, however, was known to stand so high in his royal nephew’s favor, that all anticipated his speedy release.
On arriving at the ante-chamber, the constable ordered the guard to remain there with the prisoner, while he went in to the king.
“Leave me not here, I pray you, good Sir John,” said the admiral, “but take me at once before his majesty.”
“I must first ascertain the lord protector’s pleasure,” rejoined the constable. And he entered the inner room.