ther in the priory garden,
after a game or two of draughts, the young knight talked more freely and
openly of his plans, his hopes, his ambitions, than perhaps he had
ever done. He told the old man all that the Earl had disclosed to him
concerning the fallen fortunes of his father's house, and of how all
who knew those circumstances looked to him to set the family in its old
place once more. Prior Edward added many things to those which Myles
already knew--things of which the Earl either did not know, or did not
choose to speak. He told the young man, among other matters, the reason
of the bitter and lasting enmity that the King felt for the blind
nobleman: that Lord Falworth had been one of King Richard's council in
times past; that it was not a little owing to him that King Henry, when
Earl of Derby, had been banished from England, and that though he
was then living in the retirement of private life, he bitterly and
steadfastly opposed King Richard's abdication. He told Myles that at the
time when Sir John Dale found shelter at Falworth Castle, vengeance was
ready to fall upon his father at any moment, and it needed only such a
pretext as that of sheltering so prominent a conspirator as Sir John to
complete his ruin.

Myles, as he listened intently, could not but confess in his own mind
that the King had many rational, perhaps just, grounds for grievance
against such an ardent opponent as the blind Lord had shown himself to
be. "But, sir," said he, after a little space of silence, when Prior
Edward had ended, "to hold enmity and to breed treason are very
different matters. Haply my father was Bolingbroke's enemy, but, sure,
thou dost not believe he is justly and rightfully tainted with treason?"

"Nay," answered the priest, "how canst thou ask me such a thing? Did I
believe thy father a traitor, thinkest thou I would thus tell his son
thereof? Nay, Myles, I do know thy father well, and have known him for
many years, and this of him, that few men are so honorable in heart and
soul as he. But I have told thee all these things to show that the King
is not without some reason to be thy father's unfriend. Neither, haply,
is the Earl of Alban without cause of enmity against him. So thou, upon
thy part, shouldst not feel bitter rancor against the King for what hath
happed to thy house, nor even against William Brookhurst--I mean the
Earl of Alban--for, I tell thee, the worst of our enemies and the worst
of men believe thems