Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485 -- Juvenile fiction
"Nay, verily," answered Humphrey. "I go to no priory to-night. I will
go to an inn, and I will have there a mighty supper, and a good bed,
and no priestly duties to perform. I know not how to perform them if I
would. And I proclaim to no man that we be counterfeits. And moreover,
the priests here may be even as the parish priest of Oundle. Mayhap he
will not set the pursuers on our track, but I trust him not. I trust no
man who sendeth forth travellers with such a breakfast." So saying, he
rode boldly down the main street which he had entered till he came to
where it intersected another main street at right angles. There he
stopped. "Here be inns in plenty," he said. "It must be this town is on
the Watling Street." And he questioned the groom who came to take their
tired horses.
"Yea," answered the groom. "This be the town of Dunstable. And here it
is that the Watling Street crosseth the Icknield Street."
"_Pax vobiscum_," said Humphrey. "I will in to the fire and my supper.
Do thou care well for the beasts." And, followed by Hugo, he strode off
with a gait which was not often seen on a priest.
The inn which Humphrey had chosen displayed the sign of the Shorn Lamb,
and was one of the smallest in the neighborhood; it made its patrons at
home in its large kitchen while they waited for the meal to be served.
There was but one other guest in the room when Hugo and Humphrey
entered, and the moment the faithful serving-man saw him he was
grateful for his priest's garb; for the fierce little man who was
giving orders in a peremptory manner was none other than Walter
Skinner.
In great fear he had fled from Newark at the instance of the courtier,
but his courage, after three days of wandering, had returned to him;
for his hope of one day being a duke died hard. "Though I be the king's
spy no longer," he had said to himself, "I have been the king's spy.
Therefore I have had a certain measure of preferment and may hope for
more." And in this humor he had come into Dunstable by way of the
Icknield Street, and by chance had chosen the very inn Humphrey had
selected. That he had fled from Newark and was no longer in pursuit of
them Humphrey did not know; and he, accordingly, withdrew deeper into
the concealment of his hood, while Hugo did the same.
As for Walter Skinner, he looked at them with contempt. "Here cometh a
beggarly priest and a novice," he thought, "to keep company at the
table with me. I will none of it." And he said haughtily to the
innkeeper: "Worthy host, I have no liking to priests. Seat them not at
the table with me. Give me thy company, if it please thee, but serve
the priest and his novice elsewhere."
The innkeeper happened to be in a surly humor. Certain affairs had gone
contrary and vexed him. Therefore he made answer: "I keep but one table.
There may ye all feed or ye may look elsewhere. There be other inns."
And he added slowly and impressively, "They--be--all--full--also."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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