"Is Mr Dale one of these?
Is it the King's pleasure or his own that sets the limit to his duty and his services ?" They were all looking at me now, and it seemed as though we had passed from courtly phrases, such as fall readily but with little import from a man's lips, and had come to a graver matter.

They were asking some pledge of me, or their looks belied them.

Why or to what end they desired it, I could not tell; but Darrell, who stood behind the priest, nodded his head to me with an anxious frown.
"I will obey the King in all things," I began.
"Well said, well said," murmured Arlington.
"Saving," I proceeded, thinking it my duty to make this addition, and not conceiving that there could be harm in it, "the liberties of the Kingdom and the safety of the Reformed Religion." I felt Arlington's hand drawn half-away, but in an instant it was back, and he smiled no less pleasantly than before.

But the Duke, less able or less careful to conceal his mood, frowned heavily, while Hudleston cried impatiently, "Reservations! Kings are not served with reservations, sir." He made me angry.

Had the Duke said what he did, I would have taken it with a dutiful bow and a silent tongue.