"It shall be well with him!" exclaimed the king. "Glad am I of the Nevilles and the Beauchamps in a day when so few may be trusted. Bring him to me in my retiring room."
Unhelmeted, but otherwise clad as he had ridden, Richard Neville was quietly conducted to the apartment which so few were ever allowed to enter, and he was brought face to face with the king.
"Nay, Richard, sit thee down," commanded Edward, for the wornout messenger hardly could rise from his bended knees. "I would hear thee slowly and long. Begin with thy going, and see that thou miss no place nor any man, gentle or simple."
Richard began his tale, and there was no interruption until he came to the message sent by the Earl of Arundel.
"I will remember him for that," he said. "A wise man and true. Speak on."
There was no other stopping until the story reached the York gate.
"Sir Robert," said the king, "then I may trust the Johnstones. It is well. Come now to the archbishop. Nay, hold thy letters until thy words are done."
There were questions concerning his Grace and some others, but most careful were the king's inquiries relating to the Knight of Liddesdale.
"Now, thy ride hitherward," said the king, and Richard told it all. He saw the eyes of the prince flash admiringly at the passage of arms, but the king chafed sorely that he could not guess by whom Richard had been assailed.
"Thou didst well not to slay him," he decided, after a moment's thinking. "If thou ever meetest him again, to know him by his voice or otherwise, tell me."