“To-morrow, betimes,” said I, “for my message is urgent.”
“You will have trouble enough,” said he. “There is little love between town and gown there, and unless you like knocks, you had better send your letter by the hand of one who does.”
“I mind no knocks,” said I, groaning a little at the memory of some I had received that very evening; “besides, I am bound to give my letter by my own hand.”
“Then,” said he, “take my cap and gown: they are no use to me and may be a passport to you. Lend me your cloak in exchange. It will serve to hide me, while it would but betray you as an intruder inside Oxford.”
“This cloak,” said I, “is the gift of my dear mistress in London. But perhaps your advice is good. I will go into Oxford in a scholar’s garb, and you meanwhile shall shelter here in my cloak till I return about noon. Is it a bargain?”
“As you please,” said he, and fell asleep.
I was the more pleased with this exchange, as I remembered what Master Udal had said concerning the fancy Master Penry might take for my brave cloak. It would be safer here, protecting my comrade, than flaunting in the eyes of the ravenous youth of Oxford.
When I arose next morning with the sun, my bedfellow still slept heavily. I could not forbear taking a look at him as he lay there. His face in sleep, with all the care and unrest out of it, looked like that of some boyish, resolute Greek divinity. His arm was flung carelessly behind his head, and the tawny hair which strayed over the pillow served as a setting for his fine-cut features.
But I had no time for admiring Greek divinities just then; and slipping on the scholar’s robe and cap, which, to my thinking, made me a monstrous fine fellow, I left my own cloak at his bedside, and, taking my letter, started on my errand, afoot.
In the clear morning I could plainly see the towers of the city ahead of me before I had been long on the road. But it is one thing to see and another to touch. The inn where I had lain was at the river’s bank, and yet no road seemed to lead to it or from it. As for mounting the river bank, that was impossible, by reason of the thickets which crowded down to the water’s edge. I had to tramp inland, through marsh and quagmire, in which more than once I thought to end my days, till, after much searching, I hit upon the road which led to the city. Before I entered it the bells were clanging from a score of steeples, and many a hurrying form, clad like myself, crossed my path.