Yet, if you can be got away safely, there is still a shaft
that you may shoot more deadly than any that ever left Grey Dick's
quiver. But yesterday I told you for your comfort--when we spoke of his
wooing of Red Eve--that this Norman, for such he is, although his mother
was English and he was English born, is a traitor to King Edward, whom
he pretends to serve."
"Ay, and I said as much to him this afternoon when he prated to me of
his knightly honour, and, though I had no time to take note of faces, I
thought he liked it little who answered hotly that I was a liar."
"I am sorry, Hugh; it may put him on his guard, or perhaps he'll pay no
heed. At least the words are said, and there's an end. Now hearken. I
told neither you nor any one all the blackness of his treachery. Have
you guessed what this Acour is here to do?"
"Spy out the King's power in these parts, I suppose."
"More than that"--and he dropped his voice to a whisper--"spy out a safe
landing-place for fifty thousand Normans upon our Suffolk coast. They
are to sail hither this coming summer and set the crown of England
upon their Duke John, who will hold it as vassal to his sire, Philip of
France."
"God's name! Is that true?"
"Ay, though in such a devil's business that Name is best left out. Look
you, lad, I had warning from overseas, where, although I am now nothing
but a poor old priest of a broken Order, I still have friends in high
places.
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