But Etienne caught him by the collar as he knelt, and flung him off, so that his head struck by the wall. He arose with a rueful countenance and would have drawn his sword, but Sir John Holland went to him and they two whispered together and departed.
“Come!” said Stephen, “the street is safer for thee. If I know aught of the young Earl of Oxford, they will return and play some devil's trick. Come! Wilt trust me? I know a way not by the gate.”
She was weeping soft, but she gave her hand into his and let him lead her through dark ways to a garden and a hedge; and so he crawled through a small hole and drew her after him, and they ran across a field to the high road.
“Do not weep!” he whispered. “I will protect thee with my life.”
“I am not afeared,” she answered him; “but, alas! who would be a maid and not weep?”
They came upon the road where it made a turning away from the great gate of the palace, and here was a tall man pacing in the dusk.
“Father!” Calote cried joyfully.
But though the squire made as he were content, yet he sighed. Natheless, when he was come back to the round chamber, he found a white something on the floor, which was Calote's little kerchief. And this he put to his lips many times, and folded it, and thrust it inside his jerkin, on the left side.