“Has the thought come to you, my lords, that in this scroll, thus far, we have made no provision for the enforcement of our demands? We deal with a strong and crafty monarch. Even if he place his seal upon our demands, what surety have we that he will adhere to them after our levies have been dispersed? He will then be stronger than any one or two or three of us. How shall we ensure his adherence to the treaty?”
The rest of us gazed at one another in silence. This was a new thought, it seemed, to our whole assembly; and none could deny the seriousness of the question. At last De Longville spoke again:
“And hast thou, Grimsby, given thought to this so that thou canst now produce a remedy?”
“Not on the instant, my lord; but in the main my thought is this: In this instrument itself must be provision for its enforcement. The King must agree that a body of ten or a score or more of us shall be named by ourselves; and that these shall be responsible to see that the charter be not impaired or overridden. In another night I can form the language to carry this provision into our articles.”
Then the Abbot spoke, suggesting that Sir Cedric be instructed to do this; and finally, on motion of mine, the articles were back referred to Cedric and the Abbot with instruction to bring to our meeting, at two o’ the clock on the following day, a fair and perfect copy that we might adopt and place before the assembled leaders.
’Twas then high noon. As we left the Council Hall, Sir Cedric took me by the arm and insisted that I come to his inn for the midday meal. There was in his inviting a special urgency and a look in his eyes from which I who knew him so well of old instantly gained the knowledge that this was no ordinary matter of courtesy but something of vastly greater moment. So I easily suffered myself to be led toward his quarters; and soon we were seated at a board that was graced with a goodly roast and all other due refreshment.
When we had something satisfied our hunger, and the old serving man who waited on us had departed, Cedric bent toward me across the board to say:
“What sayest thou, Sir Richard, to a ride of a dozen leagues or so and a little adventure whereby, if Fortune favors, we may do our cause full loyal service?”
“With all my heart!” I cried, “whither shall we ride, and on what errand?”
’Twas two months and more since we had seen activity; and this dull life of the camp and the town was little to my liking. Sir Hubert Gillespie had lately struck a blow for the King by the surprise and capture of two strong castles in the Midlands that we had thought safely in our hands, while we with our brave array at Stamford consumed the days and our dwindling substance in idleness.