Now it chanced that the strangers had ordered liquor, and Walter
Skinner paused in the bringing of it long enough to take a drink of it
and fill up the measure again with water. And in a few moments his
fears were gone. He surreptitiously drank again, and yet again, for the
strangers were convivial. And, by the time they were served and his
task done, he had forgotten his danger and remembered only the
injustice of the innkeeper.
"What!" he said to himself. "Here be a degradation! Here be a putting
of fine metal to base uses! I who have been servant to the king am made
a scullion to traveling strangers who be drunken, moreover, and fit
only to be served by this rascal innkeeper who hath made a scullion of
me. And shall he have my horse also? Nay, he shall not. I will away to
the stables this moment and set out and gain my liberty."
Nobody noticed him as he went out the kitchen door, and nobody saw him
as he entered the stable and prepared his horse for the journey. And,
still unnoticed, he mounted, after many a crazy lurch, and set off down
the street. In due time he came to the gate, and the watchman
challenged him.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262