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Page 33
'"Am I?" said De Aquila.
'Fulke laughed and said, "No man who serves King Henry dare do this much
to his messenger. When didst thou come over to the Duke? Let me up and
we can smooth it out together." And he smiled and becked and winked.
'"Yes, we will smooth it out," said De Aquila. He nodded to me, and
Jehan and I heaved up Fulke--he was a heavy man--and lowered him into
the shaft by a rope, not so as to stand on our gold, but dangling by his
shoulders a little above. It was turn of ebb, and the water came to his
knees. He said nothing, but shivered somewhat.
'Then jehan of a sudden beat down Gilbert's wrist with his sheathed
dagger. "Stop!" he said. "He swallows his beads."
'"Poison, belike," said De Aquila. "It is good for men who know too
much. I have carried it these thirty years. Give me!"
'Then Gilbert wept and howled. De Aquila ran the beads through his
fingers. The last one--I have said they were large nuts--opened in two
halves on a pin, and there was a small folded parchment within. On it
was written: "_The Old Dog goes to Salisbury to be beaten. I have his
Kennel. Come quickly_."
'"This is worse than poison," said De Aquila, very softly, and sucked in
his cheeks. Then Gilbert grovelled in the rushes, and told us all he
knew. The letter, as we guessed, was from Fulke to the Duke (and not the
first that had passed between them); Fulke had given it to Gilbert in
the chapel, and Gilbert thought to have taken it by morning to a certain
fishing boat at the wharf, which trafficked between Pevensey and the
French shore. Gilbert was a false fellow, but he found time between his
quakings and shakings to swear that the master of the boat knew nothing
of the matter.
'"He hath called me shaved head," said Gilbert, "and he hath thrown
haddock-guts at me; but for all that, he is no traitor."
'"I will have no clerk of mine mishandled or miscalled," said De Aquila.
"That seaman shall be whipped at his own mast. Write me first a letter,
and thou shalt bear it, with the order for the whipping, to-morrow to
the boat."
'At this Gilbert would have kissed De Aquila's hand--he had not hoped to
live until the morning--and when he trembled less he wrote a letter as
from Fulke to the Duke, saying that the Kennel, which signified
Pevensey, was shut, and that the Old Dog (which was De Aquila) sat
outside it, and, moreover, that all had been betrayed.
'"Write to any man that all is betrayed," said De Aquila, "and even the
Pope himself would sleep uneasily. Eh, Jehan? If one told thee all was
betrayed, what wouldst thou do?"
'"I would run away," said Jehan. "it might be true."
'"Well said," quoth De Aquila. "Write, Gilbert, that Montgomery, the
great Earl, hath made his peace with the King, and that little D'Arcy,
whom I hate, hath been hanged by the heels. We will give Robert full
measure to chew upon. Write also that Fulke himself is sick to death of
a dropsy."
'"Nay!" cried Fulke, hanging in the well-shaft. "Drown me out of hand,
but do not make a jest of me."
'"Jest? I?" said De Aquila. "I am but fighting for life and lands with a
pen, as thou hast shown me, Fulke."
'Then Fulke groaned, for he was cold, and, "Let me confess," said he.
'"Now, this is right neighbourly," said De Aquila, leaning over the
shaft. "Thou hast read my sayings and doings--or at least the first part
of them--and thou art minded to repay me with thy own doings and
sayings. Take pen and inkhorn, Gilbert. Here is work that will not irk
thee."
'"Let my men go without hurt, and I will confess my treason against the
King," said Fulke.
'"Now, why has he grown so tender of his men of a sudden?" said Hugh to
me; for Fulke had no name for mercy to his men. Plunder he gave them,
but pity, none.
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