cried Philip; "then must I be there to shelter and protect her."

"We will forth this very night!" cried Culverhouse. "I will to the
house and get ready my servants to accompany me."

"I will make all preparation here!" echoed Philip, "and only await
my father's return.

"Cuthbert, thinkest thou that they are in peril this very night?
Speak; tell us all!"

"I trow not," answered Cuthbert with some decision, knowing that
his object was well accomplished and that the Trevlyns would make
all speed to leave London, yet scarcely himself wishing them to
hurry off in the night like fugitives in fear for themselves. "I am
certain sure that no immediate peril hangs over them, or I should
have been more urgently warned. I would not have you hasten thus. I
trow it would more alarm the ladies to be aroused by you in the
middle of the night than to see you come riding thither later in
the day on the morrow. Surely it would be better to wait for day.
The night is black and tempestuous; it will be hard to find the
road. Tomorrow with the first of the sunlight you may well ride
forth."

Culverhouse and Philip both saw the soundness and reasonableness of
this counsel, and knew that their respective fathers would both
concur in this opinion, though their own impatience chafed at the
delay.

"And thou--what wilt thou do thyself, Cuthbert?" asked Philip;
"come with us to Cross Way House?"

Cuthbert hesitated a few moments, debating within himself what were
best. He had been warned on the one hand to flee the forest, on the
other to flee the city. If his mysterious gipsy friends were right,
for him there was peril in both places. But it certainly seemed to
him that his own presence and company would add to the perils of
his kinsmen; and his decision was speedily taken.

"I hope to join you there anon," he said; "but I have something set
my heart upon seeing this grand pageant when his Majesty shall open
his Parliament on the fifth. Methinks I will stay for that, and
then perchance I will forth to the Cross Way House."

He looked keenly at both his companions as he spoke, but neither
face wore the least look of any secret intelligence. He was certain
that no whisper of the plot had reached their ears.

"Ay, do so, and come and tell us all," said Culverhouse gaily. "I
had thought to be there myself, but I must to my Kate's side.

"Philip, thy father will be something loath to leave London ere
that day. Thinkest thou that thou c