"The longest way is the quickest and the safest, Master Tyndale," said the forester, who had been the first to mount into the saddle, and had, indeed, gone forward at a canter to look along the road beyond the bend.
"I think so, too!" exclaimed Byrckmann; but he looked anxiously at his wife, and wondered as she sat in her rough-and-ready pillion how long her strength would last after a day of hard travelling and many dangers, and the sleepless night. It was the only way, however; for with Cochlaeus or his minions riding in the country, it was best to take the smaller risk, go as gently as they dared, and keep well out of the beaten paths.
"Just as you think," said Tyndale quietly. "I am in your hands—and God's," he added, a moment later. "But I fear me Mistress Byrckmann will find the longer way too much for her little store of strength."
"I can go as far as need calls," the sick woman answered bravely. "I am so comfortable here that a few miles more or less cannot harm me," she said; but there was a tremulousness in her voice which made Margaret watch her mother anxiously, and she drew closer to her side, leaning in her saddle to lay her own on the thin, transparent hand.
"It will be all rest, mother, when we get to our journey's end, and we will not travel fast to shake you," she said tenderly. "Will you bear that in mind, Master Engel?
"I will," came the good-natured answer from the man who had become the natural leader of the little cavalcade. "We're going to leave this dusty and too open road and make for the river, and then for miles we shall be in forestland. Isn't it so, Herman? You know as well, perhaps better than I do."
"It is so," said Herman, who was going to ride in the rear, alert for every sound, lest by any ill-chance the Churchman and his riders had changed their course, and had not ridden on to Hautcoeur.
"How long, think you, will it take Cochlaeus to get to the Castle of Hautcoeur?" Margaret asked, after they had been riding nearly an hour at little more than a leisurely jaunt because of her mother.
"Three hours at the least," said the forester.
"And if he discovers that he has been duped, and decides to ride back to the inn, three hours more!" Byrckmann exclaimed. "He will know as soon as he goes down into the castle dungeon that he has either been fooled or the lord of Hautcoeur has been misled. Then he may come back in hot haste. That means, he will be at the inn again in six hours—nay, five by now."