After introducing the young knight, Douglas begged the privilege of talking a moment with his wife in private. A page led Sir Richard to a seat within an alcove of the hall, where he remained, looking out of a window at a company of infantry drilling in the castle yard till Lord and Lady Douglas had finished their rather lengthy discourse.
"I'll see thee at the wassail board this evening, Sir Richard," said Douglas, who had accompanied his wife as far as the curtained entrance to the alcove. "Thou art indeed happily come. To-day is the twenty-fifth of the month—the feast of Crispian will be spread in the state hall. I have made thy squire comfortable in my retainer's quarters," he added, and then retired to his room above where the jackdaws were awaiting to hold their council.
[CHAPTER XIII]
OF THE INCIDENT OF THE COBBLER'S FEAST
Noble gentlemen," said Douglas when he had returned into his room, "I am here confronted by a problem that I would fain crave thy learned assistance in solving. MacGregor," he added, handing Henry's warrant to the lean scrivener, "recite to us the contents of this parchment."
MacGregor at once proceeded to read the document, which abounded in pompous tautology and redundant sentences. When he had finished with the preamble he came to the meat of the warrant, which ran: "Lord Douglas, friend and ally, we beg of thee the favor that this young knight, Sir Richard Rohan, Kt., bearer of this paper, shall be engaged in fair and honorable conflict by men of thine own choice to the end that he return not again into England. We pray thee further to keep from Sir Richard Rohan, Kt., all knowledge of the purport of this warrant upon thee, Lord Douglas. And as thou shalt bear out its intent, so shalt thy divers affairs prosper before our court. Signed, Henry VII."
"Well, what think you of it, gentlemen?" inquired Douglas when MacGregor had finished his sing-song droning of the sentences.
"By thy leave, my lord," said the venerable spokesman of the conclave, a very aged man, according to all appearances, whose snowy beard swept to the cord knotted about his waist, "by thy leave and that of my compeers, I would say that it might be wise to fulfill King Henry's wishes in so small a matter. This Perkin Warbeck, to whom Lady Anna is teaching the manners of a noble, is not yet prepared to assume successfully the part of the dead prince. Not until the youth's schooling is complete shalt thou, my lord, be justified in setting thy brave men at his back and speeding them across the borders of England. And even then it is not thy wish, as we understand it, to be recognized as the instigator of this movement. To that end it would be prudent, it beseemeth me, to set the burden of obligation upon Henry by carrying out his wishes with respect of this Sir Richard Rohan."
"Well and ably said," commented Lord Douglas. "But what cause, think you, had Henry for dispatching the youth from Kenilworth to Yewe to accomplish a thing that could as well and more surely have been done upon the tower block?"