There was a certain delight in elbowing his way through the crowd from point to point, before he began the serious business of making his purchases of the various pedlars and hucksters, when he was touched on the shoulder by a pedlar, whom he recognised at once as having been to Paton Hall twice during the previous summer with his pack.
"Ah! I have seen you before," he said, by way of greeting.
The man bowed. "You are Sir Miles Paton, of Paton Hall," he said.
"Yes, what then?" said Miles, somewhat impatiently.
"I have been entrusted with a package to deliver to you from one Master Humphrey Monmouth, a merchant of London."
"A package for me?" said Sir Miles. "I suppose my wife hath sent to him for naperies for the household?"
"Nay, it is not naperies, but books," whispered the man; and then he said, in a still lower tone, "it is a dangerous cargo, master, and I would that you took it off my hands without delay," and, as he spoke, the man lifted the corner of a bale of cloth on his mule's back, and disclosed a square package. "It comes from beyond sea," said the man, "and must in no wise be opened here in the fair. Will you call a servant to convey it to a place of safety? I have brought it straight from London with my cloth."
"Give it to me," said Sir Miles; "I am going to see a friend, and will take it with me." The parcel was both heavy and bulky, but it was securely fastened out of the sight of prying eyes, and it was the usual thing to see parcels carried from the fair.
So Miles hurried with his treasure to the rooms of Master Clark, and together they unfastened it. The sight made them almost speechless for joy at first, for there were three copies of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, printed in clear English type.
Of course it had come from Master William Tyndale, and was the first-fruits of his labours in the translation of the whole Testament.