"Trust me, fair Uncle. I will take due thought, and observe all secrecy. And now, if your Grace have said so much as it list you, I pray you let me be on my way home, for I have urgent business in hand, and it shall be late ere I win thither." An hour afterwards, Roger and his suite set out from Fleshy. As he climbed the last slope whence the Castle could be seen, he drew bridle for an instant, and looked back. "Thank God that I have escaped from that hole with mine head on!" he murmured, in so low a tone that he was unheard except by the safe ears of Lawrence Madison. "If my gracious Lord of Gloucester ever again set eyes on me within those his walls, I grant him free leave to dub Roger Mortimer a fool! ’Very dear Cousin,’ forsooth! ’Most sweet Cousin!’ Methinks, the further I drew away from him, the dearer and sweeter I became. We will see, most sweet and very dear Uncle, if the young cannot outrun the old!—Lawrence!" "My Lord?" "We must be ready, thou and I, to set out for Ireland as to-morrow." "For Ireland, my Lord!" "Aye. I shall never feel at ease till I have set the sea betwixt me and those prating traitors. Once at Carrickfergus or Trim Castle, and I may snap my fingers at my very dear uncle and my most sweet cousins. They shall not be so foot-hot to fetch me from Ireland as from Paul’s Wharf. The rascal crew!—the vile traitors! Pardoned over and over again as some of them have been!—raised to honours and riches by the King they are ready to betray! Would I be their King?—the ungrateful, disloyal adders! Nay, fair Uncle of Gloucester! Roger Mortimer can lay down his life if need be, but he can never sell his King and betray his friend—never break his trust, nor be unfaithful to his troth! ’_Un Dieu, un Roy_’—’_Fais ce que doy!_’ Come, let us hie on." "Methinks," said Lawrence, a little hesitatingly, "her Ladyship shall scantly be ready to obey so unlooked-for a summons." "Her Ladyship—will do her pleasure." There was a pause between the words. "It may be it shall not list her to follow me thus far. If she so think, she can ’bide at which of my castles she will." Nothing more was said on the subject until they reached Thames Street, when Lawrence was sent to give instant notice to the servants of their master’s sudden departure, and warn them to be ready for him to set out at four o’clock the next morning, and the Earl himself went to convey the intelligence to the Countess. "Bid Dan Robesart await me in my chamber," he said to the gentleman usher as he passed. *CHAPTER IX.* *ROGER FINDS HIS MISSION.* "And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods?" —LORD MACAULAY.