So this day I spent in bed, having my tutor for company, my father being away on some business of his solicitorship, and having (for once) left no clerkly task for Mr. Butharwick. My old friend was in no way surprised by the things which I had heard from Mistress Goel.
"Your father knows what has been reported to the earl, and is beforehand informed of every step which his lordship takes. The 'Solicitor' has trusty spies in the earl's own household. For example, he knows that a troop of soldiers would have been ordered here ere now to search for arms, but that they could not reach Temple, either from Hull or Doncaster, without our being advertised by the marshmen."
For my part, I had no confidence in "spies," who might play a game of their own, but I held my tongue. Mr. Butharwick had infinite faith in my father's ability, and it was not for me to shake it.
Mr. Butharwick lay under great apprehension as to what might be the upshot of the skirmish at Thorne, fearing I might be summoned to appear before the President of Council on the charge of assaulting those who were, in a manner, the officers of his Majesty, but took refuge in the certainty of our knowing the purposes of the earl in time for me to hide until my father should return, I thought his fears on that score groundless. A Vavasour could not be condemned without trial, and an open trial would be dangerous to Sheffield. As it was, the death of Will Staniforth might be laid to his charge.
Three days later, I received a letter from Staniforth's father, begging me to come to him. Though I dreaded to witness the grief of an old man, infirm, and now bereaved of his only child, I set about going. The water had risen in the marsh since Dick and I crossed, and I meant to pole over in a punt from Belshaw to Messic Mere, whence a sailing boat would carry me to Staniforth in two, or at most, three hours. And Sandtoft lay in my way.
I took Luke with me, or, as I should rather say, Luke went with me, for he gave me to understand that in future he did not intend me to go about alone, in which he was strongly upheld by Mr. Butharwick. Not that I opposed his going, for the words of the gipsy girl had an influence with me, and I even carried gun and pistol, albeit there was small likelihood we should meet with an enemy on our voyage.
