ally and affected
me now in this way, now in that. Now I longed to be free and safe back
at Hare Street; now I knew that I could never look her in the face again
if I evaded my plain duty. One thing I can say, however, from my heart,
and that is that never for an instant did I seriously consider any
evasion. It was all in the course that I had chosen--to "serve the
King." Well; I must do so now, wherever it led me. What, however,
greatly added to the horror of my position was that I knew that this
strong fellow at my side thought me to be a traitor to himself and was
using that knowledge only for his own ends. He would surely be ruthless
if he found I had served my turn; and here was I, riding to his house,
and only two men in the world knew whither I was gone.

Rumbald had already dined; and thought not at all of me. We drew rein
therefore, nowhere; but rode straight on, through village and country
alike--now ambling for a little, once or twice cantering, and then
walking again when the way had holes in it. So we passed through
Totteridge and Barnet and Enfield Chase and Wood Green, and came at last
to Broxbourne where the roads forked, and we turned down to the right.
It was terrible that ride--all in silence; once or twice I had attempted
a general observation; but he answered so shortly that I tried no more;
and I am not ashamed to say that I committed myself again and again to
the tuition of Our Lady of Good Counsel whose picture I had venerated in
Rome. Indeed, it was counsel that I needed.

I did not know precisely where was the Rye, nor what it was like; for I
had avoided the place, of design. I supposed it only a little place,
perhaps in a village. I was a trifle disconcerted therefore when, as we
crossed the Lea by a wooden bridge, he pointed with his whip, in
silence, to a very solid-looking house that even had battlemented
roofs--not two hundred yards away, to the left of the road. There was no
other building that I could see, except the roofs of an outhouse or two,
and suchlike. However, I nodded, and said nothing. No words were best:
in silence we rode on over the bridge, and beyond; and in silence we
turned in through a gateway, and up to the house, crossing a moat as we
went.

Indeed, now I was astonished more than ever at the house. It was liker a
castle. There was an arched entrance, very solid, all of brick, with the
teeth even of a portcullis shewing. An old man came out of a door on our
right, as