"I and your mistress think so, too, Humphrey. Whilst the hue and cry
lasts you are better anywhere than here. When it has ceased, you may
safely return. Meanwhile, as fortune will have it, I can employ you
still in my service."
Then he told me how he desired to send a letter to a friend of his at
Oxford, which, being of the gravest importance, he wished delivered by a
trusty messenger--as he took me to be. Therefore, if I was ready to
forward him in the matter, I might avoid my pursuers, and do him a
service to boot.
I hailed the offer with joy and thankfulness. I longed for a change
somewhere, I cared not where, and, if skulk I must, an errand like this
would please me vastly more than hiding for a week in my master's
cellar.
"Be secret," said he (meaning, I suppose, Stoupe). "To-morrow early be
ready to start to Kingston, where you may get a horse. Meanwhile your
mistress is herself making you a cloak which shall be proof against all
weathers. So good-night, Humphrey, and see you rouse yourself betimes
in the morning."