said Dick.

"Nay," cried the priest, "this is a foul hearing! John Amend-All! A

right Lollardy word. And black of hue, as for an omen! Sirs, this knave

arrow likes me not. But it importeth rather to take counsel. Who should

this be? Bethink you, Bennet. Of so many black ill-willers, which

should he be that doth so hardily outface us? Simnel? I do much

question it. The Walsinghams? Nay, they are not yet so broken; they

still think to have the law over us, when times change. There was Simon

Malmesbury, too. How think ye, Bennet?"

What think ye, sir," returned Hatch, "of Ellis Duckworth?"

Nay, Bennet, never. Nay, not he," said the priest. "There cometh never

any rising, Bennet, from below--so all judicious chroniclers concord in

their opinion; but rebellion travelleth ever downward from above; and

when Dick, Tom, and Harry take them to their bills, look ever narrowly to

see what lord is profited thereby. Now, Sir Daniel, having once more

joined him to the Queen's party, is in ill odour with the Yorkist lords.

Thence, Bennet, comes the blow--by what procuring, I yet seek; but

therein lies the nerve of this discomfiture."

"An't please you, Sir Oliver," said Bennet, "the axles are so hot in this

country that I have long been smelling fire. So did this poor sinner,

Appleyard. And, by your leave, men's spirits are so foully inclined to

all of us, that it needs neither York nor Lancaster to spur them on.

Hear my plain thoughts: You, that are a clerk, and Sir Daniel, that sails

The Black Arrow