"What meanest thou, sirrah?" he demanded of the second groom. "Sayest
thou a horse is stolen when I did pay good money for him but this
morning? And, moreover, who would steal such a beast that will mind not
the bridle and only runs his course the faster for the spur?"
"Ay, thou knewest not that he was stolen, no doubt," retorted the
second groom, sarcastically. "But here cometh master, who will soon
pull thee down from thy high perch, thou little minute of a dirty man.
Thou hast slept in the swamp over night, I do be bound, and now comest
to brave it out, seeing thou canst not make way with the horse."
"I would have thee know, villain, that I serve the king, and did buy
the horse in Gainsborough this morn to replace the one which the young
lord did cut loose. And whether I did sleep in the swamp or in a duke's
chamber is naught to thee or to thy master. I have been so shaken up
this morn over thy rough roads and by thy vile beast of a horse that
thou and thy master shall pay for it. What! is the servant of the king
to be sent into the Isle of Axholme by an idiot groom at the Green
Dragon? And, being there, is he to be planted in the mire like a rush
by a Saxon serving-man? And is his horse to be cut loose by the young
lord at the word of that same Saxon serving-man? And is he to be
carried behind Richard Wood to Gainsborough? And is he there to buy a
black horse from a vile stranger? And is he to be run away with to this
place when he would fain go elsewhere about his master's business,
which is to catch this young lord and the Saxon serving-man? And then
is he to be looked at as if he were a thief? Thou shalt repent, and so
I tell thee; yea, in sackcloth and ashes.
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