"Yea--and the very devil's own time had I to compass it. What with the going astray, and the getting down on my knees in the dust, I had scarce an hour's rest between the welcome sight of you asleep within the hut and sunrise, ... eh! I wot you were watching me beside the road near the fork, for I saw your marks along the thornhedge. A right nice prank that was to play on an old campaigner, ... eh? And am I a night-capped grand-dam, think you, to lose that which has cost me so much to gain? I'll be damned, Sir Dick, an you are not this moment my captive, ... eh!" "Right glad am I to claim you friend, de Claverlok," maintained Sir Richard, guiding his horse toward the highway; "but I must deny you the right to call yourself my captor. My first escape was an honorable one, effected through force of arms. An I must escape again, let it be in the same manner. Though much do I regret that our friendship should end thus. I leave to thee, sir knight, the choice of weapons." "Fiends and furies fly away with every kind of weapon!" roared de Claverlok; "an they are to be wielded between you and me. Would I be keeping my knightly vow by spitting you upon my lance's head, ... eh? By the Rood! You would tempt me to set myself in a class with that foul toad, the Renegade Duke, ... eh? Ah! but how I did laugh to see him kicking and cursing amidst the thorns. I would you had put an end to him, Sir Dick. Yesterday, an I wot myself, began a tale of black treachery, my young friend, to which the false head of that court dandy shall furnish an appropriate and bloody period." By this time they had come to the road where, as though by common consent, they reined to a halt for further parley. "An you refuse to give me battle, de Claverlok," said Sir Richard a trifle impatiently, "you must permit me to take my own way, as I am determined not to go yours, unless indeed it be in a helpless and disabled condition, and trussed fast to the back of your barb. How say you, sir knight?" "How say I, ... eh?" muttered the grizzled warrior within his curly beard. "What can I say, would be more to the point, it would appear. The hungry vultures, I'll swear, would be the only gainers from a tilt at arms between us. And beshrew me, Sir Dick, an I am of a mind to strew the sward with your precious body. As for mine--well--I am not so partial to vultures as to wish to feast them upon my carcase. But tell me," he added, looking keenly into the young knight's eyes, "why are you so stubbornly determined upon making your way into Castle Yewe; can it be that Douglas is your friend, ... eh? You know full well that you have not the King's paper."