"
Then, without a word of leave-taking, he rode off, Black Dick doing his
afflicted best, and Walter Skinner wondering how he could have been so
mistaken in the animal. "The thief that stole him did well to be rid of
him," he said. "And that he should put him off on me is but another
indignity I have suffered on this chase. The king hath ever a
lengthening score to pay, and nothing but a dukedom will content me.
And why should I not be a duke? Let Richard Wood say what he likes,
worse men than I have been dukes. Ay, and more basely born."
By noon he had come to Newark. "And here will I pause and search the
town for them," he said. "If they know not of them, why, their
ignorance is criminal. A loyal subject should know what concerneth his
king. And it concerneth the king that these two be found."
Now it chanced that the king was then at Newark and about to set off
for Clipstone Palace. Which, when Walter Skinner heard, he declared
proudly, "I will have speech of him."
"Thou have speech of him!" exclaimed an attendant. "Thou art mad."
"Nay, verily, I am not mad. Am I not Walter Skinner, hired by the
king's minister to bide in a high tree that overlooketh De Aldithely
castle? I tell thee, I will see the king.
Pages:
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186