A Boys Ride | Page 5

last
he spoke. "I have a plan. But, perchance, thou mistakest and there is no
traitor within the walls."
Lady De Aldithely looked at him quickly. "Nay, I am not mistaken,"
she said.
"Then this is my plan," announced Hugo. "Josceline and I be alike. I
will personate him. In a week Fleetfoot will be quite recovered. We
will go forth. They who watch will think they see Josceline and pursue
me. I will lead them a merry chase, I warrant thee."
"But, my boy!" cried Lady De Aldithely. "What wild plan is this? Thou
lead such evil men a merry chase? Speak rather of the dove leading the
hawk a merry chase."
"Even so I will lead them," declared Hugo. "If they catch me, they shall
do well."
Lady De Aldithely smiled at the boyish presumption. "My poor lad!"
she said. "How if they catch thee with an arrow as they caught Fleetfoot?
Thou mightest find no castle then to give thee shelter, no leech to salve
thy wound."
"For thee, because of thy kindness, I will risk that," declared Hugo,
after a pause.
Lady De Aldithely put up her hand. "Hush!" she said. "Speak no more
at present to me, and nothing on the subject at any time to any but me. I
hear footsteps."
The footsteps, bounding and light, drew nearer, and presently Josceline
looked in at the door. "Come, Hugo!" he cried. "Let us away to the
tilt-yard and do our exercise."
Josceline was already an esquire, and very diligent in the exercises

required of an esquire as a part of his training for knighthood. But not
more diligent than Hugo had been during his stay at the castle. For
Hugo felt himself at a disadvantage on account of having been bred up
at the priory, and was eager to make up for his shortcomings. In all
their practice Robert Sadler, one of the men-at-arms, was present. And
both boys liked him very well. He was not a young man, being some
sixty years old, and gray and withered. He was of Irish parentage, and
short in stature; and he had a tongue to which falsehood was not so
much a stranger as the truth. He was also as inquisitive as a magpie,
and ready to put his own ignorant construction on all that he saw and
heard. The two boys, however, had never stopped to think of his
character. He was always praising their performances in the tilt-yard,
and always deferring to them, so that they regarded him very favorably
and were quite ready to abide by his judgment. To-day he was waiting
for them with a tall horse which he held by the bridle. "I would fain see
both of you vault over him," he said.
Josceline advanced, put one hand on the saddlebow and the other on the
horse's neck, and vaulted over fairly well. After him came Hugo, whose
performance was about equal to Josceline's.
"It was the cousin to the king that could not do so well as that,"
commented Robert Sadler.
"And how knowest thou that?" asked Josceline, complacently. "Didst
thou see him?"
"See him!" exclaimed Robert Sadler. "I have seen him more times than
thou art years old. And never did he do so well as thou and Hugo."
With hearts full of pride the two went from vaulting over the horse to
striking heavy blows with a battle axe.
"Ah!" cried Robert Sadler. "Could the cousin to the king see the strokes
that ye make, he were fit to die from shame. He can strike not much
better than a baby. I could wish that all mine enemies might strike me
no more heavily than the cousin to the king."

"This cousin to the king must be worthless," observed Josceline, his
face red from the exertion of striking.
"Worthless!" exclaimed Robert Sadler. "It were not well that the king
heard that word, but a true word it is. Worthless he is."
"I knew not that the king had a cousin," observed Hugo, with uplifted
axe.
"There was never a man born," declared Robert Sadler, recklessly,
"who had not a cousin. And would the king that hath everything else be
lacking in a common thing like a cousin? Thy speech is well nigh
treasonable. But strike thou on. I will not stay to see thee put the king's
cousin to shame, and then hear thee deny there is such a one." And he
stalked off to the stables leading the horse.
"I fear thou hast angered him," said Josceline. "But no matter. He will
not harbor anger long." And so it proved. For before the two had
finished striking he had returned to the tilt-yard apparently full of good
humor.
Two days went by. Then Lady De Aldithely spoke again to