ken, and one does not think it matter for surprise; but how so bulky a thing as the Seal of England can vanish away and no man be able to get track of it again — a massy golden disk — ”

Tom Canty, with beaming eyes, sprang forward and shouted —

“Hold, that is enough!

Was it round? — and thick? — and had it letters and devices graved upon it? — yes? Oh, now I know what this Great Seal is that there’s been such worry and pother about. An’ ye had described it to me, ye could have had it three weeks ago. Right well I know where it lies; but it was not I that put it there — first.”

“Who, then, my liege?” asked the Lord Protector.