Should you fail to deliver it, he can,
at least, not put it down to any fault of mine.
"Sir James Burgon and Sir Philip Haverstone both offered to carry it,
urging that the danger should fall on them; and not upon you, who are
still an esquire, and have no duty towards me in the affair; and that
it were a shame that they should remain here, idle, while you rode,
perhaps, to your death.
"Assuredly, my feelings were with them and, were it not for the
circumstances in which I am placed, I should certainly intrust the
enterprise to them; but on my laying the whole matter before them, and
pointing out that the coming of two of my knights to him would be a
breach of the king's orders, they saw that, since you were willing to
undertake it, it were best that it should be so.
"I doubt not that Henry would, not unwillingly, fasten some quarrel on
me. He has his army at hand and, did he march hither, he could seize my
lands, and those of my nephew, and partition them out among his
friends; for I am in no condition to strike a single blow in my
defence. We know, well enough, that when a king wishes to get rid of
one of his nobles, there is never any great difficulty in finding a
pretext for his arrest, and execution.
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