Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/261

 passages forsooth, which time suffereth us not to tell of, yet also they gat no good, and were no nearer to hearing a true word of Elfhild than ever.

So back comes Osberne, cast down and somewhat moody; but time wears on, and he is busy over his lord's errands at this place and that until a year is sped; and now come tidings that drive all other things out of his head for a while. It was a little after Marymass that he comes home to Longshaw, whence some business had taken him a three days' journey through the Wood, and straightway he hears tell how war, and big war, has arisen. For the Barons who lay mostly to the east and north of Longshaw, though some help they had from the west and the south, both hated Sir Godrick sorely because he withheld them from the worst deeds of tyranny, and also, though they owed not service to the King of the great City or the Porte thereof, yet were they somewhat under their power. These then had met together and made a great league, and had sworn the undoing of Sir Godrick and the house of Longshaw for ever. And all the world knew that they were but the catspaw of the King of the City and the tyrannous Porte, though neither of these would let themselves be seen therein.

Now Godrick sends for Osberne, and talks long with him, and the end of that talk is that he sends him on the errand to go seek the hosting of them of the Barons' League who dwelt furthest north, and to fall on them as fast and as fierce as he may, so as to break up the said hosting, so