"My Lord de Boteler," said Holgrave, drawing the child almost forcibly from Margaret, "as I hope that my mother is a saint in heaven, the child is yours. I was a bondman--was motherless--childless--and I thought it would be no crime to make you, too, desolate!"
De Boteler looked at Holgrave as he spoke, but did not reply; but, placing his hand upon the full shoulder that rose above the boy's tunic, he bent his head down and kissed the child's forehead.
"The child is exceedingly like you!" remarked Richard.
"There is a resemblance, my lord," said Oxford: "but it is not likenesses nor assertions that will satisfy me--I require proof!"
"And proof you shall have," replied the monk. "Holgrave, declare how you obtained the child!"
Isabella, who had recovered her consciousness, and who now, with almost convulsive extacy, was embracing the child, cast an angry glance at her brother, as if she feared that some discrepancy in the proof might bring her right to claim him in question. De Boteler, however, did not appear displeased, but merely said, "Holgrave, you have not declared how you obtained the child."
"If it please you, my lord, when I was a boy, I was one morning rubbing down one of the late lord's horses for the servitor, whose duty it was to do it, when, all on a sudden, as I was stooping down to wipe the horse's feet, I saw the wall at the back of one of the stalls open, and out came the old baron. He looked round, but fortunately, or it may be unfortunately for him who is now lord, he did not see me."
"And you discovered where the secret opening led?"
"Yes--with all the curiosity of a boy, I afterwards found that the secret door led by some long dark steps to the bed-chamber of the old lord!"
"Did you mention your discovery to any one?"
"To no one, until after I had stolen the child--and then I told all to father John."
"This story," remarked the Earl of Oxford, "requires proof as much as any thing else."
"You shall receive that of your own eyes," said Holgrave, "if it please you to accompany me;" and Richard, expressing a wish to witness every thing connected with the strange discovery, arose, and, with De Boteler, Oxford, and Sir Robert Knowles, proceeded as we have before described, to the bed-chamber. "From that bed, my lord," said Holgrave to De Boteler, "I took the child--it slept soundly--I crept down these steps--it was a dark night--and I got home without being seen!"