Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/318

290 who had won his heart, and had named the wedding-day. The money I promised him meant her father's 'yes' to the suit, and so Robert was as eager as I to send me forward. I saw the brown-eyed maiden, and even had speech apart with her, telling her who I was, and begging she would tell her Robert to make haste. After that, he was winged in my service. We left the cart behind, and rode a-horseback, both armed with cudgels and knives until—" here Amabel could not go on for laughter for a moment—"until we met with my good cavalier Henry of Huntingdon, who bade me stand in the name of the king, believing Robert the Carter and myself to be highwaymen! We yielded at once, and upon my discovering his name—my troubles were over. Robert the Carter, with a purse of gold returned to claim his bride, Lady Amabel was taken to Huntingdon Castle where the Earl and Countess received her as a daughter, listened to her story, and promised two hundred men-at-arms to aid in the relief of the Castle of the Red Lion. I went as a beggar-boy, I return escorted by an earl and his son, and with two hundred stout men, who will ask why the Count de Ferrers dares to"