Suddenly he heard the voice of one of the men-at-arms on guard raised in a peremptory challenge. The flap of the tent was thrust aside, and two breathless, footsore, and rain-soaked persons, whom the knight hardly recognized, burst into his presence without so much as "By thy leave."
"Sir," gasped Geoffrey, "we have happened upon a plot——"
"To do me out of my night's rest?" interrupted Sir Thomas grimly.
"Nay, sir, 'tis no jest. 'Tis a plot against the life of the King!"
CHAPTER XX
THE TRAITORS' DOOM
Early on the morning of the first day of August Sir Thomas Carberry, accompanied by his two squires and Oswald, waited upon the King at his lodging in the High Street of Southampton.
Although King Henry had been in residence for nearly twenty days, his indomitable energy had compelled him to take long daily journeys to all parts of the county of Hampshire.
Thus one day he would be at Portsmouth, inspecting the scanty defences of that as yet infant fortress. Then at Winchester, conferring with the city council concerning the raising of a loan, or at Bishop's Waltham, there to attend to some affairs that many would have regarded as too trivial to occupy the Sovereign's precious moments. But it was in things small as well as great that Henry was thorough. He had fully grasped the importance of the fact that attention to details brought its own reward.
Early though it was, the King had already transacted a heavy share of work ere Sir Thomas Carberry alighted before the door of the house that sheltered his youthful Sovereign.