“For that matter,” I continued significantly, “be content that you possess a whole skin to-day. It is more than others of your trade have lived to boast of. And now, my horse!”
He muttered something under his breath, and turning on his heel, led the way down the passage. As we passed the main room of the inn I glanced through the open door.
The tables were overturned and I saw the bodies of three, at least, of the troopers still lying upon the floor, amid a litter of broken glass, in a drunken slumber. The room and passage reeked vilely with tobacco, so that it was a relief to step out into the courtyard and breathe the cool morning air.
The landlord crossed the yard, and at his call a sleepy hostler came yawning from one of the stables. It was but the work of a minute to slip the saddle upon the back of my horse, and then I mounted, and with a final wave of the hand rode out of the inn.
Once the village was behind me, I broke into a canter, and the cool morning breeze, redolent of the sea, sang past my ears. The birds were waking in the hedgerows, filling the summer morning with their harmony; a little stream by the wayside rippled merrily amongst the pebbles, and every leaf and flower, sparkling with the night’s rain, reared their heads joyously to greet the first rays of the sun as they struggled through the mist, which had so far dispelled that I could plainly distinguish objects fifty feet distant.
There was a peacefulness brooding upon the country, a restful repose in the quiet air, to which, fresh from the narrow streets and reeking kennels of London, I had long been a stranger. I became absorbed in the contemplation of the unwonted sights around me, until a sudden throb of pain across my brow recalled me to myself and I fell to taking council of the anger in my heart.
I had ridden thus for some half mile, the roadway slightly ascending, before I came on my right to the gates leading to Cleeve Manor. They were wide open and were supported on either side by massive pillars, surmounted by a pair of couchant lions carved in stone, and beneath these the arms of the Ingram family.
Within the gates a broad avenue, flanked on either side by majestic oaks and beeches, stretched away into the mist.
I drew rein at the entrance, and there I was fain to wait, for I did not consider it likely that my lady had yet set out, and I had determined that I would not again approach the house in my present state, to become a mark for the prying eyes of every serving wench.
It may have been the half of an hour that I waited thus, when the sound of hoofs ringing on the gravel surface of the avenue broke on my ear, and a minute later the horses and their riders came into sight. There were four in all of the latter.