" And, the party now
approaching, he broke through all restraint and rode close up beside
the king. "May it please thy Majesty," he began, "there be those that
do keep me back from speech with thee. Ay, even though I do tell them
that I serve thee."
The king looked at him, laughed rudely, and motioned one of his
attendants to remove him. But the little man waved the attendant off,
and cried out so that all might hear, "Didst not thy minister hire me
to bide in the tall tree that overlooketh De Aldithely Castle?"
At the mention of the name De Aldithely the king paused, and seemed to
listen. Seeing which, Walter Skinner went on: "And, when all the rest
were gone to York, did I not see the young lord and his Saxon
serving-man ride forth? And did I not give chase? And do I not now seek
them on this wind-broken and spring-halt horse as best I may?"
The king beckoned the little man nearer.
"Where hast thou sought?" he asked.
"In the wood, in the swamp, and in the town," was the proud answer. "I
be not like Richard Wood, who did set out to help me. For I have come
up with them three several times, and he not once.
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