I am one of the clerks of the kitchen
now, make me thankful--with a finger in the purveyor's office, and may
get my whole hand in by and by."
"I am truly glad," said Nigel, "to hear that you have not suffered on
my account,--still more so at your good fortune."
"You bear a kind heart, my lord," said Linklater, "and do not forget
poor people; and, troth, I see not why they should be forgotten, since
the king's errand may sometimes fall in the cadger's gate. I have
followed your lordship in the street, just to look at such a stately
shoot of the old oak-tree; and my heart jumped into my throat, when I
saw you sitting openly in the eating-house yonder, and knew there was
such danger to your person."
"What! there are warrants against me, then?" said Nigel.
"It is even true, my lord; and there are those who are willing to
blacken you as much as they can.--God forgive them, that would
sacrifice an honourable house for their own base ends!"
"Amen," said Nigel.
"For, say your lordship may have been a little wild, like other young
gentlemen--"
"We have little time to talk of it, my friend," said Nigel. "The point
in question is, how am I to get speech of the king?"
"The king, my lord!" said Linklater in astonishment; "why, will not
that be rushing wilfully into danger?--scalding yourself, as I may
say, with your own ladle?"
"My good friend," answered Nigel, "my experience of the Court, and my
knowledge of the circumstances in which I stand, tell me, that the
manliest and most direct road is, in my case, the surest and the
safest.
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