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Therefore is he fled, and therefore is our young lord Josceline in danger, and therefore are we skulking and hiding and leading the king's men this chase. The times be evil; and who knoweth what shall amend them?" Hugo did not reply. His eye had caught sight of the flash of sunlight on steel down the valley, and he pointed it out to Humphrey. "Up! up!" cried Humphrey.
Ask me not how. I have discovered it." Hugo looked at her and his eyes flashed indignation. "Deliver Josceline, he shall not!" he cried. "He could but for thee, for we are powerless." "Then again I say, he shall not." "Come nearer still," said Lady De Aldithely. "I would tell thee the man's name. What sayest thou to Robert Sadler?" Hugo stared. "Robert Sadler!" he repeated.
"Except thine uncle, the prior," said Lady De Aldithely. "Except my uncle," agreed Hugo. All this time Josceline had waited with impatience and he now spoke. "He is not to be put outside the walls, mother, is he?" "Nay, my son. That were poor hospitality. He may bide here so long as he likes." Life was rather monotonous at the castle, as Hugo found.
But presently he sat upright in triumph as he remembered his plan, which he had for the moment forgotten, to betray Hugo into their hands and keep back Josceline for himself to deliver to the king. How he was to accomplish this difficult thing he did not know, but, in his ignorance, he imagined it might easily be done. Sir Thomas and his aid were watching him.
"Whatever knightly service it is thine to render after thou hast taken thy vow, thou canst render none greater than thou dost now render to Matilda De Aldithely." "And what service is that?" inquired Josceline as he came smiling into the room. "And what solemn manner is this, my mother? There must be great deeds afoot to warrant it." And he glanced from one to the other.
The fire alight, the two lay down, Hugo to fall asleep and Humphrey to rise at intervals through the night and throw on reeds that so the fen mists might work no harm to the boy, to whom he was now as devotedly attached as ever he was to Josceline.
When the drawbridge should be lowered to admit him on his return the king's messengers with a troop of horse would be at hand. They would make a rush while he held parley with the old warder. They would gain entrance to the castle; Josceline would be taken, and the reward for his own treachery would be gained. He had plenty of time to think of all this, for the men were slow to offer.
"Why should I leave thee and Josceline to serve a stranger? Here I bide where my lord left me." "Wilt thou not go at my command, Humphrey?" There was no reply but a mutinous look, and Lady De Aldithely continued, "Thou hast doubtless seen how very like in appearance Hugo is to my son. This good lad, Hugo, this best of lads, Hugo, will, for my sake and Josceline's, assume to be my son.
They were to make no effort at concealment on this first stage of their journey which might, therefore, possibly be the most dangerous part of it. They had little to fear, however, from arrows, as the king's men would not so much wish to injure the supposed Josceline as to capture him. They had shot at him before simply to disable him before he could reach the shelter of the castle.
Bidding the groom to bring the horse to the door of the inn at once, he hurried away, paid his reckoning, examined carefully the string of his bow, and looked over his store of arrows. "And now, Josceline, son of Lord De Aldithely," he said, "my arrow will bid thee halt this time, and not my voice.
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