"'Fellows! Take no thought for my trouble, for if I die, I shall die for the cause of Freedom which we have won, counting myself happy to end my life by such a martyrdom. Do, then, to-day as ye would have done, had I been killed yesterday.'"
"My brave Richard! And then?"
"And then an axe crashed through his skull. But his murderers did not live long enough to gloat over their work."
"Richard, my brother! That I had died for thee!"
The lad was deeply affected by his own recital. He remained silent an instant and then said suddenly:—
"But I waste precious time. I bear an urgent message from Matilda that you should go at once to Ely."
"To Ely? I? Wherefore?"
"Her message I committed to memory, word for word: 'It is too late to do aught at the Bury, but fly to Ely, that the people can be saved from grave danger.'"
"How knows she this?"
"Her cousin Rose sent to her from Ely, from the Castle."