But where shall we conceal this body?'
'Wherefore should we conceal it?' I asked.
'Why, man, unused to war or the precautions of a warrior, you must yet see that should this body be found here, there will be a hue and cry through the country, and that strangers like ourselves will be arrested on suspicion. Should we clear ourselves, which is no very easy matter, the justice will at least want to know whence we come and whither we go, which may lead to inquiries that may bode us little good. I shall therefore take the liberty, mine unknown and silent friend, of dragging you into yon bushes, where for a day or two at least you are like to lie unobserved, and so bring no harm upon honest men.'
'For God's sake do not treat it so unkindly,' I cried, springing down from my horse and laying my hand upon my companion's arm. 'There is no need to trail it in so unseemly a fashion. If it must be moved hence, I shall carry it with all due reverence. 'So saying, I picked the body up in my arms, and bearing it to a wayside clump of yellow gorse bushes, I laid it solemnly down and drew the branches over it to conceal it.
'You have the thews of an ox and the heart of a woman, 'muttered my companion. 'By the Mass, that old white-headed psalm-singer was right; for if my memory serves me, he said words to that effect. A few handfuls of dust will hide the stains. Now we may jog upon our way without any fear of being called upon to answer for another man's sins. Let me but get my girth tightened and we may soon be out of danger's way.'
'I have had to do,' said Saxon, as we rode onwards, 'with many gentry of this sort, with Albanian brigands, the banditti of Piedmont, the Lanzknechte and Freiritter of the Rhine, Algerine picaroons, and other such folk. Yet I cannot call to mind one who hath ever been able to retire in his old age on a sufficient competence. It is but a precarious trade, and must end sooner or later in a dance on nothing in a tight cravat, with some kind friend tugging at your legs to ease you of any breath that you might have left.'
'Nor does that end all,' I remarked.
'No. There is Tophet behind and the flames of hell. So our good friends the parsons tell us. Well, if a man is to make no money in this world, be hanged at the end of it, and finally burn for ever, he hath assuredly wandered on to a thorny track. If, on the other hand, one could always lay one's hands on a well-lined purse, as those rogues have done to-night, one might be content to risk something in the world to come.'
'But what can the well-filled purse do for them?' said I. 'What will the few score pieces which these bloodthirsty wretches have filched from this poor creature avail them when their own hour of death comes round?'
'True,' said Saxon dryly; 'they may, however, prove useful in the meantime. This you say is Bishopstoke. What are the lights over yonder?'
'They come, I think, from Bishop's Waltham,' I answered.
'We must press on, for I would fain be in Salisbury before it is broad day. There we shall put our horses up until evening and have some rest, for there is nothing gained by man or beast coming jaded to the wars. All this day the western roads will be crowded with couriers, and mayhap patrolled by cavalry as well, so that we cannot show our faces upon it without a risk of being stopped and examined. Now if we lie by all day, and push on at dusk, keeping off the main road and making our way across Salisbury Plain and the Somersetshire downs, we shall be less likely to come to harm.'
'But what if Monmouth be engaged before we come up to him?' I asked.
'Then we shall have missed a chance of getting our throats cut. Why, man, supposing that he has been routed and entirely dispersed, would it not be a merry conceit for us to appear upon the scene as two loyal yeomen, who had ridden all the way from Hampshire to strike in against the King's enemies? We might chance to get some reward in money or in land for our zeal. Nay, frown not, for I was but jesting. Breathe our horses by walking them up this hill.