Elfric heaved a sigh, and said:
“If so, I suppose I must obey; but I wish I had not been sent on the expedition.”
“It is to test your loyalty.”
“Then it shall be proved. I have no personal motives of gratitude towards Dunstan.”
“Rather the contrary.”
“Rather the contrary, as you say. But what sound was that? Surely something stirred the bush!”
“A rabbit or a hare. You are becoming fanciful and timid. Well, you will remember that tomorrow there must be no timidity, no yielding to what some would call conscience, but wise men the scruples of superstition. We shall not reach the monastery till dark, most of the visitors will then have quitted it, and we shall take the old fox in a trap.”
“You will not slay him in cold blood!”
“No. I shall bid him follow me to the king, and if he and his resist, as probably they will, then their blood be on their own heads. But surely—”
At that moment a large stone, which Alfred had most inopportunely dislodged, rolled down the bank, and made Elfric, who was in its path, leap aside. Alfred, whose foot had rested upon it, slipped, and for a moment seemed in danger of following the stone, but he had happily time to grasp the tree securely, and by its aid he drew himself back and darted into the wood.