He looked, therefore, to see who the stranger could be that asked for him, with some curiosity perhaps, but no alarm, and was surprised but well pleased, when the figure of honest Hugh of Clatford darkened the door. "Ah, Hugh!" he exclaimed, "is that you? What has brought you to Westminster? Are you also going to seek service in foreign lands?" "Faith, sir, I know not what I am going to do," replied the good yeoman; "I came up here with my lord, and wait his pleasure." "With your lord!" exclaimed Woodville, in astonishment; "and what, in the name of fortune and all her freaks, has brought my uncle to Westminster?--Was he summoned to the coronation?" "Good truth, noble sir, I know not," answered Hugh of Clatford. "He has not told me why he came; but I chanced to meet your man Hob, and asked him where you were to be found, but to come and see you and how you fared." "Thanks, Hugh, thanks!" replied Richard of Woodville. "'True friend findeth true friend wherever they follow, And summer's no summer that wanteth the swallow;' But whom has my uncle with him?" He would have fain asked if Mary Markham was near; but the question would not be spoken, and Hugh of Clatford saved him the trouble of farther inquiry. "He has brought no one but myself," he said, "and Roger Vale, and Martin the henchman, and one or two lads with the horses, and a page, and the Lady Mary--" "Ah! and is that sweet lady here?" asked Woodville, in as calm and grave a tone as a very joyous heart could use. "But has he not brought my cousin Isabel?" "No, good sooth," rejoined the yeoman; "he and the Lady Mary came off in haste on the arrival of a messenger from London." "That is strange," said Richard of Woodville;--but then he thought that, perchance his friend Harry Dacre had sped well in his suit to Isabel, and that the old knight might have left her to cheer him at the hall. Nor was such a course unlikely in that age; for there were then fewer observances and stiff considerations of propriety than in later days, since rules and regulations more powerful, though but of air, than the locks and eunuchs of an Eastern harem, have tied down the most innocent intercourse of those who love, and every lady in the land is watched with the dragon's eyes of parental prudence. Love was then looked upon with reverence, and regarded as a safeguard rather than a peril. There was more confidence in virtue, more trust in honour. After a short pause, Richard of Woodville inquired where his uncle was lodged; and to the great disappointment of his host, who, while he was still speaking with Hugh of Clatford, entered to set out the tables for the approaching meal, the young gentleman accompanied the good yeoman, fasting as he was, to visit good Sir Philip Beauchamp--as he said; but, in truth, to sun himself in Mary's eyes.