"Some one else hath come," said Richard. "The officer of the guard, with horsemen. Into the forest! Haste!"
Down dropped they behind cover, but men-at-arms went charging down the road, for one of the peasant pikemen had told to the brigadier, and then to a knight:
"The château La Saye is a heritage of the English Earl Warwick, and it hath no French owner."
"Go! a spy!" roared the knight. "We will teach him a lesson!"
A youth brought up near Longwood and three Welshmen from the hills were not men easily to be found in a forest; surely not by heavily armed French cavalry. It was high noon, nevertheless, when Richard marched wearily into an encampment over which floated the flag of Sir Thomas Gifford.
Free was his welcome; but when he stood before his good friend the knight he did but put a finger to his lips, and say:
"Sir Thomas, the king, and him only!"
"Speak thou no other word!" exclaimed Sir Thomas. "Come with me speedily. The earl told me of thy going. Glad am I to see thee again alive."
No other was allowed to question them as they went; but Sir Geoffrey of Harcourt, and not Earl Warwick, was with King Edward when his young spy of Paris stood before him.
"Speak thou slowly and with care," he said, and Richard told his tale.