"I can do so, setting forth at noon. 'Tis eighteen miles, you say. I will go by horse."
"'Slight, man, have you a horse?"
"No, but you will give me one—or the means to buy one at Smithfield; and then may I die in Newgate if I be not at your country-house at four o'clock!"
After a little thought, Jerningham told him to call at a certain gate at Winchester House on the morrow at noon, where a horse would be in waiting; he then handed him a gold angel and dismissed him to his affairs.
The captain had no sooner strutted jauntily off than Jerningham quickly beckoned Gregory, and said earnestly:
"Dog his footsteps. Lose not his track till he comes to me to-morrow; and if he meets her—Begone! you will lose him. Haste!"
The jealous lackey, raised to sudden joy by this congenial commission, glided away like a cat.
"I will have her, 'gainst all the surly fathers and swaggering captains in London; and 'gainst her own will, and fiends and angels, to boot!" said Master Jerningham, in his heart.
About the same moment, Ravenshaw was saying in his heart, as he trod the stones of Fleet Street: