Chapter 14

BOOK III - MY LORD FOXHAM : CHAPTER I - THE HOUSE BY THE SHORE

Months had passed away since Richard Shelton made his escape from
the hands of his guardian. These months had been eventful for
England. The party of Lancaster, which was then in the very
article of death, had once more raised its head. The Yorkists
defeated and dispersed, their leader butchered on the field, it
seemed, - for a very brief season in the winter following upon the
events already recorded, as if the House of Lancaster had finally
triumphed over its foes.

The small town of Shoreby-on-the-Till was full of the Lancastrian
nobles of the neighbourhood. Earl Risingham was there, with three
hundred men-at-arms; Lord Shoreby, with two hundred; Sir Daniel
himself, high in favour and once more growing rich on
confiscations, lay in a house of his own, on the main street, with
three-score men. The world had changed indeed.

It was a black, bitter cold evening in the first week of January,
with a hard frost, a high wind, and every likelihood of snow before
the morning.

In an obscure alehouse in a by-street near the harbour, three or
four men sat drinking ale and eating a hasty mess of eggs. They
were all likely, lusty, weather-beaten fellows, hard of hand, bold
of eye; and though they wore plain tabards, like country ploughmen,
even a drunken soldier might have looked twice before he sought a
quarrel in such company.

A little apart before the huge fire sat a younger man, almost a
boy, dressed in much the same fashion, though it was easy to see by
his looks that he was better born, and might have worn a sword, had
the time suited.

"Nay," said one of the men at the table, "I like it not. Ill will
come of it. This is no place for jolly fellows. A jolly fellow
loveth open country, good cover, and scarce foes; but here we are
shut in a town, girt about with enemies; and, for the bull's-eye of
misfortune, see if it snow not ere the morning."

"'Tis for Master Shelton there," said another, nodding his head
towards the lad before the fire.

"I will do much for Master Shelton," returned the first; "but to
come to the gallows for any man - nay, brothers, not that!"

The door of the inn opened, and another man entered hastily and
approached the youth before the fire.

"Master Shelton," he said, "Sir Daniel goeth forth with a pair of
links and four archers."

Dick (for this was our young friend) rose instantly to his feet.

"Lawless," he said, "ye will take John Capper's watch. Greensheve,
follow with me. Capper, lead forward. We will follow him this
time, an he go to York."

The next moment they were outside in the dark street, and Capper,
the man who had just come,