e I had the more occasion for speed.

Now, on a certain day, being May the eighth, the heart of John Grey was
merry within him. He had well drunk, and I had let him win of me, at the
dice, that one of my three horses which most he coveted.

He then struck me in friendly fashion on the back, and cried--

"An unlucky day for thee, and for England. This very day, two years
agone, that limb of the devil drove us by her sorceries from before
Orleans. But to-morrow--" and he laughed grossly in his beard. "Storey,
you are a good fellow, though a fool at the dice."

"Faith, I have met my master," I said. "But the lesson you gave me was
worth bay Salkeld," for so I had named my horse, after a great English
house on the Border who dwell at the Castle of Corby.

"I will do thee a good turn," he said. "You crave to see this Puzel, ere
they put on her the high witch's cap for her hellward journey."

"I should like it not ill," I said; "it were something to tell my
grandchildren, when all France is English land."

"Then you shall see her, for this is your last chance to see her whole."

"What mean you, fair sir?" I asked, while my heart gave a turn in my
body, and I put out my hand to a great tankard of wine.

"To-morrow the charity of the Church hath resolved that she shall be had
into the torture-chamber."

I set my lips to the tankard, and drank long, to hide my face, and for
that I was nigh swooning with a passion of fear and wrath.

"Thanks to St. George," I said, "the end is nigh!"

"The end of the tankard," quoth he, looking into it, "hath already come.
You drink like a man of the Land Debatable."

Yet I was in such case that, though by custom I drink little, the great
draught touched not my brain, and did but give me heart.

"You might challenge at skinking that great Danish knight who was with us
under Orleans, Sir Andrew Haggard was his name, and his bearings were . .
. " {39}

So he was running on, for he himself had drunk more than his share, when
I brought him back to my matter.

"But as touching this Puzel, how may I have my view of her, that you
graciously offered me?"

"My men change guard at curfew," he said; "five come out and five go in,
and I shall bid them seek you here at your lodgings. So now, farewell,
and your revenge with the dice you shall have when so you will."

"Nay, pardon me one moment: when relieve you the guard that enters at
curfew?"

"An hour after point of day. But, n