The two men then led the horses to the front gate, where Anthony tied a pair of them, that he might take Hal"s London horse to the stable.
Master Marryott mounted and rode toward the village to acquaint Captain Bottle with what was to be done. On perceiving Kit"s stalwart figure, black against the dim night, Hal called out to him to follow back to the mansion. While the two were covering the distance thereto, Hal briefly put the soldier in possession of what it was needful for the latter to know. Anthony had now returned from the stable, and the lanthorn revealed Hal"s transformation, which the captain viewed with critical approval while transferring himself from his tired horse to one of the fresh ones.
"And the Puritan rides with us?" queried Bottle, while Anthony was gone with the second horse to the stable. "Sad company, sad company! An the dull rogue sermon me upon the sins of the flesh, I"ll knock in his teeth to shut up his throat withal! Well, well! This mixing in matters of state maketh strange bedfellows. I mind me once--lend ear. Hal! Hoofs yonder, or I"m an owl else!"
Hal listened. Yes, horses were crossing the wooden bridge of the brook on the Londonward side of the village.
"Should these be the men?" whispered Hal in a low voice. "They come slowly."
"Who else should be on the road at this hour?" replied Kit. "They know not any reason for haste."
"A red murrain on that Puritan, then!" said Hal. "What holds him so long at the stable? All is lost, without his lanthorn. I"ll ride in and fetch him."
"Nay, they must use time enough in coming hither. Hark! They have halted in the village. Mayhap they must needs ask the way to Fleetwood house."
""Tis well, then. They will learn of Sir Valentine"s hurt."
There was then a very trying time of silence and waiting, during which Hal"s heart beat somewhat as it had beaten in the tiring-room before the performance of "Hamlet."
"Hear them again," he said at last, through his teeth. "And that rascal Puritan--"
"Save thy breath! Here he comes."
Anthony indeed now appeared with the light, crossing the yard with longer strides than he had previously taken; he, too, had heard the approaching horses.
"Into thy saddle, dog!" muttered Hal. "And a plague on thee for thy slowness! Now do as I bid, or I"ll give thee a bellyful of steel!"
The steward having got on horseback, Hal led the way back into the yard.
The three then wheeled about, and stood just within the now wide-open gate. Anthony at Hal"s right and bearing the lanthorn in his left hand, Kit at Hal"s left. Hal measured with his ears the constantly decreasing distance of the hoof-beats on the hard road, as they advanced at a steady walking pace. Through the silence came the sound of a far-off clock striking eight, and then of the approaching hors.e.m.e.n talking to one another in low tones.
At last Hal said, "Now!" and rode forth into the road, which was here of exceptional width. The three, riding abreast, turned toward London, as if intending to ride southward. Had they continued, they would soon have met the approaching hors.e.m.e.n face to face. But suddenly Hal, as if he now for the first time discovered the presence of newcomers, stopped short, as did also his two attendants. Anthony, in pretence of enabling the make-believe Sir Valentine to perceive who the hors.e.m.e.n were, held the lanthorn up, a little to the right and rear of Hal"s body, so that it revealed his att.i.tude and left his face in shadow. Leaning forward, as in pain, yet with head stiffly set, shoulders forced back, hat low on brow, left elbow thrust out, and beard well outlined against the light, Hal peered anxiously into the gloom. Out of that gloom there came, after a startled exclamation and a hush of low voices, the clear greeting:
"Give you good even, Sir Valentine!"
Hal uttered a swift order to his men. Anthony instantly wheeled around, to take the lead, and rode northward. Hal did likewise, and was immediately followed by Captain Bottle. As soon as Hal made sure that Kit had turned, he called to the steward ahead to make speed; and a moment later the three were galloping over the frozen road at the devil"s gait.
"Halt! In the queen"s name!" rang out of the darkness behind, in the voice that had been heard before.
"Go to h.e.l.l, Roger Barnet!" shouted back Kit Bottle, to Hal"s astonishment.
"You know him?" queried Hal, as the horses flew onward.
"Yes, and a taker of traitors he is, sure enough!" growled Kit through the night. "A very h.e.l.l-hound, at a man"s heels! Hear him cursing, back yonder, for his pistol will not go off! They have whipped up; the whole pack is on the scent!"
"Good!" cried Hal. "Sir Valentine and the priest will have plain sailing. The chase is begun, old Kit! Five days of this, and the hounds must neither lose nor catch us! Ods-body, the Puritan"s lanthorn is out!
I hope he knows the road in the dark!"
CHAPTER VII.
MISTRESS ANNE HAZLEHURST.
"I have got the start; But ere the goal, "twill ask both brain and art."
--_The English Traveller._
Manifestly the Puritan knew the road, and manifestly it was known to the horses, also; for without decrease of swiftness the few black objects at the roadside--indistinct blurs against the less black stretches of night-sky--seemed to race back toward the men in pursuit. Soon the riders had a wood at their right, a park at their left. Then there was perforce a slowing up, for a hill had to be ascended. But by this time the enemy was left almost out of ear-shot. Hal, knowing his party to be the more freshly mounted, took heed to make no further gain at present.
While in the vicinity of Fleetwood house, the chase must be so close that the officers would not for a moment drop it to consider some other course of action. As long as they were at his heels, and saw imminent possibility of taking him, it was not probable that they would separate for the purpose of searching Sir Valentine"s house, or of causing proclamation to be sent broadcast by which port wardens might be put on guard, or of taking time to seek the aid of shire officers, justices, and constables. It was not for himself that Hal had most to fear a hue and cry of the country, for by keeping ahead of the officers by whom that hue and cry must be evoked, he should keep ahead of the hue and cry itself; but such a raising of the country would direct to Fleetwood house an attention which might hinder Sir Valentine"s eventual removal.
Once the pursuers were drawn into another county, Hal might gain over them sufficient time for his own rest and refreshment, and for his necessary changes of horse. When committed to the hunt by several hours"
hard riding, the officers, for their own reputation, would be less likely to abandon it for a return to Fleetwood house; and though, as the hunt should develop into a long and toilsome business, they would surely take time to enlist local authorities in it, those authorities would not be of Hertfordshire, and their eyes would be turned toward Hal himself, not toward Fleetwood house.
"Tell me more of this Barnet," said Hal to Captain Bottle, as the three fugitives rode up a second hill. The sound of the pursuers, galloping across the level stretch between the two heights, came with faint distinctness to the ears of the pursued, in intervals of the noise made by their own horses,--noise of breathing, snorting, treading the rough earth, and clashing against the loose stones that lay in the ditch-like road.
"Why, he is a chaser of men by choice," answered Kit. "I knew him years agone, in Sir Francis Walsingham"s day. Beshrew me if he is ever happy without a warrant in his pouch. I"m a bottle-ale rascal an he hath not carried the signature of the secretary of state over more miles than any other man! A silent, unsocial rogue! When I knew him first, he was one of Walsingham"s men; and so was I, i" faith! We chased down some of the Babington conspirators together,--that was fifteen years ago. For, look you, this raising of the country against a traitor is well enough, when he is a gentleman of note, that openly gathers his followers and fortifies his house and has not to be hunted out like a hare. But when traitors are subtle fellows that flee and disguise themselves, these loutish constables" knaves, that watch for hunted men in front of ale-houses, are sad servants of the state, G.o.d wot!--and I have seen with these eyes a letter to that effect, from Lord Burleigh to Sir Francis, when this same Barnet and I were a-hunting the Babington rascals."[25]
"Then this Barnet is like to keep on our track?" interrogated Hal.
"Yea, that he is! "Tis meat and drink to the rogue, this man-hunting!
He takes a pride in it, and used to boast he had never yet lost his game. And never did he, to my knowledge, but once, and that was my doing, which was the cause of our falling out. When Sir Francis Walsingham died, we remained in service as pursuivants--to attend the orders of the council and the high commission. That was a fat trade!
Great takings, rare purse-filling! Old Kit had no need of playing coney-catcher in those days! We would be sent to bring people up to London, to prison, and "twas our right to charge them what we pleased for service and accommodation; and when they could not pay, it went hard with them. Well, Roger Barnet and I disagreed once about dividing the money we meant to squeeze out of a Gloucestershire gentleman, that some lord his neighbor had got a council"s order against, for having troubled his lordship with a lawful suit in the courts. Rather than take the worse of it from Roger Barnet, I got up when he was asleep, at the inn we were staying overnight, and set the gentleman free. Roger would have killed me the next day, had he been as good a swordsman as he is a man-hunter. But, as it was, he had to be content with my losing so fat a service. For he was in favor with Mr. Beal, the clerk of the council, and might have made things hard for me but that I took forthwith to the wars."
"G.o.d look to it he may not have chance of making things hard for thee in this business!" said Hal.
"Why, one thing is sure," replied Kit, "he will stick to our heels the longer for my being of the party. "Twould warm his heart to pay off old scores. He"ll perchance think "twas I that got word of Sir Valentine"s danger and brought warning. And, certes, he finds me aiding an accused traitor, which brings me, too, under the treason statutes. "Twould be a sweet morsel to Roger Barnet to carry me back prisoner to London! An thy plan be to keep Roger on our track, "tis well I made myself known by word of mouth, as I did. Though, for that matter, I say it again, Roger is not the dog to quit any scent, let him once lay his nose to the earth."
Ahead rode the Puritan, in a silence as of sullenness, his figure more clearly drawn against the night as Hal"s eyes were the better accustomed to the darkness. Hal now spoke so that both Anthony and Kit might hear, saying:
"My men, ye are to plant it in your minds that I am Sir Valentine Fleetwood, none other; but ye will seem to wish to hide from people that I am he. Hence ye will call me by some other name, it matters not what; and the better "twill be an ye blunder in that name, and disagree in it from time to time. The more then will it appear that I, Sir Valentine, am trying to pa.s.s myself off as another. But sometimes seem to forget, and call me Sir Valentine, and then hastily correct yourselves as if ye had spoke incautiously."
"The lie be on your own head, though my mouth be forced to speak it,"
replied Anthony Underhill, dismally.
"Willingly," said Hal; and Kit Bottle put in:
"An the weight be too heavy on thy head, Master Marryott, let old Kit bear some of it. Ods-body, some folk be overfearful of d.a.m.nation!"
Anthony muttered something about scoffers, and rode on without further speech. So they traversed a hamlet, then a plain, then more hills and another sleeping village. Varying their pace as the exigencies of the road required, they were imitated in this--as they could hear--by Barnet"s party. The narrowness of the highway, which hereabouts ran for a good distance between lines of wooden fence, compelled them to ride in single file. They had been on the road an hour, perhaps, and made about five miles, so that they were probably a mile from Stevenage, when Anthony called back to Hal:
"There be riders in front, sir, coming toward us."
"So my ears tell me," said Hal, after a moment"s listening. "Who the devil can be abroad at this hour? I hope we suffer no delay in pa.s.sing them."
Barnet"s men were now a half mile behind, evidently nursing the powers of their horses for a timely dash. A stoppage of any kind might nip Hal"s fine project in the bud. Hence it was with anxiety that he strained his eyes forward. The newcomers were approaching at a fast walk. One of them, the foremost, was carrying a light. As they drew nearer, riding one behind another, they took a side of the road, the more speedily to pa.s.s. But the leader, as he came opposite Anthony Underhill, and saw the Puritan"s face in the feeble light, instantly pulled up, and called out to one behind in a kind of surprise:
"Here"s Sir Valentine"s steward, Anthony Underhill!"
"Give ye good even, d.i.c.kon, and let us pa.s.s," said Anthony, sourly; for the other had quickly turned his horse crosswise so as to block most of the narrow road.