"
Then they fell to betting which of them would beat Grey Dick by the
heaviest points.
Next morning about nine o'clock the King sent a messenger to Hugh,
bidding him and his servant Richard wait upon them. They went with
this messenger, who led them to a little chamber, where his Grace sat,
attended only by the clerk, Brother Peter, and a dark-browed minister,
whose name he never learned.
"Hugh de Cressi and Richard Archer," said Edward, motioning to the
minister to hand Hugh a parchment to which hung a great seal, "here is
the pardon which I promised you. No need to stay to read it, since it
is as wide as Windsor Keep, and woe betide him who lifts hand against
either of you for aught you may have done or left undone in the past
contrary to the laws of our realm. Yet remember well that this grace
runs not to the future. Now that matter is ended, and we come to one
that is greater. Because of the faith put in you by our loyal and
beloved subject, Sir Andrew Arnold, your godsire, and because we like
the fashion of you, Hugh de Cressi, and hold you brave and honest, it
has pleased us to give you a commission under which we direct the Mayor
of Dunwich and all true and lawful men of that town and hundred to aid
you in the taking or, if need be, in the slaying of our subject, Sir
Edmund Acour, Count of Noyon and Seigneur of Cattrina. We command you to
bring this man before us alive or dead, that his cause may be judged
of our courts and the truth of the matter alleged against him by the
Reverend Father Sir Andrew Arnold therein determined.
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