"I will show you in a minute, Master O'Donnell," replied Barecolt. "What I need is horse flesh; and as far as I can see, very little of it is to be found in Hull. The governor walks afoot; the officers of the garrison, such as it is, trudge upon their own legs; and I have seen nothing with four feet but sundry cats, half-a-dozen dogs, and every now and then a fat horse in a coal-cart. I want beasts to carry us, Master O'Donnell; that is my need: and if you can find means to furnish us with them, I will contrive to get the young lady out."
"Oh, there are plenty of horses in Hull," answered O'Donnell; "but how did you come hither?"
"By sea," replied his companion; "but that matters not. If you can bring or send three good horses, one with a woman's saddle, to the first village on the road to York--I forget the name of the place--you will do me a service, aid poor Arrah Neil, and be well paid for your pains."
"To Newlands, you mean," said O'Donnell; "but Newlands is a long way for you to go on foot. 'Tis more than two miles, and if you are caught you are lost. Stay--there is a little low ale-house by the green side, just a mile from the town gates. The horses shall be there; but at what time?"
"Some time before daybreak to-morrow," replied Barecolt; "for as soon as I see the first ray of the sun, I am off with my companions."
"Have you more than one?" demanded the Irishman.
"The lady--and a gentleman, a friend of mine," answered the worthy captain; "otherwise I should not have wanted three horses."
"But how will you pass the gates?" inquired the other; "they are very strict at that side, for they fear enterprises from York."
"There's my key," replied Barecolt, producing the governor's pass; "but, for fear it should not fit the lock, Master O'Donnell, I shall try it five or six times before nightfall. What I mean is, that I will go out and in several times, that the people may know my face."
His companion gazed at the pass, and then at Captain Barecolt for several moments, wondering not a little what might be the real character of his visiter, and what were the means by which he had contrived to obtain the document which he spread before him. There it was, however, not to be doubted--a genuine order under Sir John Hotham's own hand, for the sentries, guards, warders, and officers of all kinds of the town of Hull, to give free passage, at any hour between daybreak and nightfall, to Captain François Jersval, and the workmen employed by him to inspect and repair the fortifications of the city, and to offer him no let or hindrance, but rather afford him every aid and assistance.