Dorothy leaned from her window, and looked sideways to the gate, expecting to see the marquis bending over his window-sill, and talking to Richard. But his window was close shut, nor was there any light behind it. A minute or two passed, during which she heard the combined discords of the rising portcullis. Then out came Eccles, slow and sleepy. 'By St. George and St. Patrick!' cried Richard, 'why keep'st thou six legs here standing idle? Is thy master's business nothing to thee?' Eccles looked up at him. He was coming to his senses. 'Thou rides in strange graith on my lord's business,' he said, as he put the key in the lock. 'What is that to thee? Open the gate. And make haste. If it please my lord that I ride thus to escape eyes that else might see further than thine, keen as they are, master Eccles, it is nothing to thee.' The lock clanged, the gate swung open, and Richard rode through. By this time a process of doubt and reasoning, rapid as only thought can be, had produced in the mind of Dorothy the conviction that there was something wrong. By what authority was Richard riding from Raglan with muffled hoofs between midnight and morning? His speech to the marquis was plainly a pretence, and doubtless that to Eccles was equally false. To allow him to pass unchallenged would be treason against both her host and her king. 'Eccles! Eccles!' she cried, her voice ringing clear through the court, 'let not that man pass.' 'He gave the word, mistress,' said Eccles, in dull response. 'Stop him, I say,' cried Dorothy again, with energy almost frantic, as she heard the gate swing to heavily. 'Thou shalt be held to account.' 'He gave the word.' 'He's a true man, mistress,' returned Eccles, in tone of self-justification. 'Heard you not my lord marquis give him his last orders from his window?' 'There was no marquis at the window. Stop him, I say.' 'He's gone,' said Eccles quietly, but with waking uneasiness. 'Run after him,' Dorothy almost screamed. 'Stop him at the gate. It is young Heywood of Redware, one of the busiest of the roundheads.'