"But thou art such a sprat of a man that my compassion
forbids me. The king looketh for thee to hear thee tell what thou
knowest of the whereabouts of the young lord and his companion. If thou
canst not tell, he will have thy head; so hath he sworn. For he is in
an evil rage, and heads are as nothing to him when he rageth, as thou
knowest. He searcheth also for the bailiff who had thee in charge and
let thee escape. I warrant thee the bailiff hath a wit too sound to go
proclaiming how he was some great man, even a bailiff in the town of
Newark."
All this was lost on Walter Skinner, however, who grasped but one
thought, that he was in danger, and had but one anxiety, how to escape
it. He turned now with some degree of humility to Humphrey.
"What!" said the innkeeper. "Dost thou turn to the beggarly priest whom
thou erstwhile didst despise? But it shall not avail thee. It is with
me that thou must deal. Knowest thou that I might lose my head for
harboring thee, if I give thee not up? But I will hide thee, my little
sprat, so that the king himself would not know thee. Come with me.
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