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"Sire, the Seal is not there!"
A mob does not melt away from the presence of a plague-patient with more
haste than the band of pallid and terrified courtiers melted away from
the presence of the shabby little claimant of the Crown. In a moment he
stood all alone, without friend or supporter, a target upon which was
concentrated a bitter fire of scornful and angry looks. The Lord
Protector called out fiercely--
"Cast the beggar into the street, and scourge him through the town--the
paltry knave is worth no more consideration!"
Officers of the guard sprang forward to obey, but Tom Canty waved them
off and said--
"Back! Whoso touches him perils his life!"
The Lord Protector was perplexed in the last degree. He said to the Lord
St. John--
"Searched you well?--but it boots not to ask that. It doth seem passing
strange. Little things, trifles, slip out of one's 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
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