Meanwhile, he would keep the sword hanging over the head of Peter, pretending that it was he alone who had prevented it from falling, and learn all that he could as to Castell and his history.
Here, indeed, Fortune, in the shape of the foolish Betty, had favoured him.

Without a doubt, as he had heard in Spain, and been sure from the moment that he first saw him, Castell was still secretly a Jew.

Mistress Betty's story of the room behind the altar, with the ark and the candles and the rolls of the Law, proved as much.

At least here was evidence enough to send him to the fires of the Inquisition in Spain, and, perhaps, to drive him out of England.

Now, if John Castell, the Spanish Jew, should not wish, for any reason, to give him his daughter in marriage, would not a hint and an extract from the Commissions of their Majesties of Spain and the Holy Father suffice to make him change his mind?
Thus pondering, d'Aguilar regained his lodgings, where his first task was to enter in a book all that Betty had told him, and all that he had observed in the house of John Castell..