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consisted solely in the functions of his office, and a sober, fond devotion to his wife and child. Well, there was at this time a great lord taken for a spy, imprisoned in the castle at Blackness and due to stand his trial. You will permit I cloud the details; they are secret even now. But on the day before the trial, documents were brought before his gaolers that sanctioned his release, a pardon in what seemed our queen’s own hand, that bore her signet seal. He was released unto his friends and thence to England, where he pursued his plot against our Crown. The pardon was a forgery, the gaolers tricked; and the signet seal was traced to an old letter in our writer’s rooms. He had trimmed it with a knife and stuck the seal afresh to calculate his forgery, and it was neatly done.’
    ‘But he was guilty, then?’ concluded Hew. ‘Why did he do it?’
    ‘I can only guess for profit. He would not confess. And to the last, he did protest his innocence, which made it all the worse. He begged us to defend him. This modest little man, who spelled our writs so patiently, with whom we shared our drinking on a quiet afternoon, came begging to our chambers, pleading for his life.’
    ‘But was my father there? What was his part in this?’ Hew pursued uneasily.
    ‘He was otherwise engaged, and could not take the case. And so it came to me, the wretched man so grateful it was touching to behold. He fell upon his knees and kissed my hand. And standing up alone there for the first time in that court without your father’s counsel … I confess that I failed him. I did not argue well, I could not make a case; in short, the man was hanged.’
    Hew shook his head. ‘Consider he were guilty, then it was not your fault. And if the man was innocent, then that must prove my point about the law.’
    ‘I did not consider it. I knew that I had failed him. For I had been afeared and flustered in that court. I was afraid, in truth, I should be tainted with his crime, who must defend the man , and not the fault. The charge was treason, after all. And yet there were no proofs, for he did not confess, no witnesses came forth, another could have found that seal, and stole it from his room. I should have made his case, and I could not. Then afterwards … Afterwards I went to your father and I told him what had happened. He spoke to me with such understanding, with such kindness, that I swear it made it worse. But that was not the worst, for he insisted we attend the execution.’
    ‘My father did!’ exclaimed Hew. ‘That was not like him!’
    Richard regarded him gravely for a moment. ‘I believe it was,’ he contradicted quietly. ‘For Matthew said, if we would know the law, then we must know the whole of it; and see the consequence of what it was we did. And while your father was most gentle, yet he was severe, and I was half afraid of him. He took me to the mercat cross and made me watch that poor man die, nor suffered me to look away until the last. I wish I might tell you, he died cleanly and bravely. But it was not so.’
    Shaken, Hew murmured, ‘And yet you went on in the law?’
    ‘At first, I was resolved to leave it there and then. Your father did convince me I might turn my rage to good. And I did, though I fear not in the way he intended. Matthew thought an advocate might also have a conscience. In personal life, I would agree. But in the court, it’s different. The lesson I learned there, was not to fail.’
    ‘You do not persuade me to pursue you in the law,’ Hew said bluntly.
    The advocate smiled. ‘It is the devil’s tale, I do confess. I know not why I told it. You are the first to hear it these past twenty years. The lateness of the hour, your father’s death, have moved me to break confidence. Let us blow out the light.’
    He lay in his shirt beside Hew on the bed, and drew the thick curtains to close out the draught. The small fire beyond burned down in the darkness. The water in the basin had begun to ice