Here was the explanation of the mystery! In a moment of harrowing bitterness of soul John Markham read the terrible truth.
“Oh my mistress!” was wrung from his lips.
John Markham’s was a slow brain, but now his high devotion lent it swiftness and subtlety. In that instant he had learned all. She whom he had adored with a passionate fidelity had given everything that was hers to one whom by all the terms of his honorable service he was pledged to retake.
“Oh my mistress!” A tear sparkled upon the falconer’s cheek.
The fugitives lying in the grass made no reply. And in his anguish of mind the falconer seemed as helpless as they. In the next moment came a shout from the other side of the hedge.
“Hulloa, Markham, what have you there!”
The words broke the spell for the man who loved his young mistress devotedly. “The dog seems to have found a rabbit,” was his answer.
“Naught better than that!” came in tones of disappointment. “We were hoping he had found something else.”
The falconer called off the dog, and then immediately rode away to join his companions.
Gervase and Anne lay in the grass until the Constable’s men were out of sight. For the moment the danger was past. But they were possessed by fear they could not overcome. More and more they marveled at the singular Providence that held them in its care. Gervase had no knowledge of the falconer; thus all that had happened was to him a mystery. With Anne it was otherwise. Yet over and above a feeling of gratitude for the man’s fidelity was the sting of remorse and a sharp pang of regret for the glad, glorious and free life of yesterday.