Even should I prove untrustworthy or indiscreet, or even turn traitor, no very great harm would be done.

If, upon the other hand, I proved ready and capable, all that I could learn in England and, later perhaps, in France, would serve me well in the carrying out of weightier designs that might then be given into my charge.
Such then I was; and such was my mission, on this fifteenth day of June, as I rode up with James my man--a servant found for me in Rome, who had once been in the service of my Lord Stafford--to the door of the lodgings engaged for me in Covent Garden Piazza above a jeweller's shop.
* * * * * It was after sunset that we came there; and all the way along the Strand, until we nearly reached the York Stairs, I had said nothing to my man, but had used my eyes instead, striving to remember what I could of seven years before.

The houses of great folk were for the most part on my left--Italianate in design, with the river seen between them, and lesser houses, of the architecture that is called "magpie," on the right.

The way was very foul, for there had been rain that morning, and there seemed nothing to carry the filth away: in places faggots had been thrown down to enable carts to pass over.

The Strand was very full of folk of all kinds going back to their houses for supper.
Covent Garden Piazza was a fairer place altogether.