"Enter."
A youth of fourteen summers, just what Osric had been when he began, entered the door, and looked curiously around. "What! was this Osric's home—Osric, the Baron's favourite?"
"He has gone to Dorchester Abbey."
"Dorchester Abbey! he was to have returned last night to Wallingford."
"He stayed for the funeral."
The boy looked amazed. What was an old man's funeral compared with Brian's orders?
"And his grandfather, dying, bade him go to Dorchester, whence he will speedily return, and bring, yes, bring with him that shall make full atonement for his offence, if offence it be."
"It had need be something very valuable then. It might cost some of us our heads, did we do the like."
"They will not hurt a hair of his, I am sure. You shall have him with you soon. Ah, yes! very soon."