, to where they stood; for, be assured, I should not otherwise
have learnt one word of this."

"How did _he_ receive these hints at my ill doing?" asks Moll.

"Patiently, till the tale was told; then, taking your steward by the
throat with sudden passion, he cries: 'Why should I not strangle you,
rascal? 'Twould be a service to humanity. What have I done to deserve
your love, or this lady your hate? Nothing. You would pit us one against
the other merely to keep your hold upon these lands, and gratify your
insensate love of possession. Go, get you gone, beast!' cries he,
flinging him off; ''tis punishment enough for you to live and know
you've failed. For, had you proved your case to my conviction, I'd not
stir a hand against this lady, be she who she may. Nay,' adds he, with
greater fury, 'I will not stay where my loyalty and better judgment may
be affected by the contagion of a vile suspicion. Away while you may; my
fingers itch to be revenged on you for sundering me from one who should
have been my closest, dearest friend.'"

Moll claps her hands together with a cry of joy and pain mingled, even
as the smile played upon her lips whilst tears filled her eyes.

"Sunday!" cries she, turning to me and dashing the tears that blinded
her from her eyes; "Sunday, and it 'twas o' Monday he refused to stay.
O, the brave heart!" Then, in impetuous haste, "He shall be found--we
must overtake him."

"That may be done if you take horse," says Anne Fitch, "for he travels
afoot."

"But which way shall we turn?"

"The way that any man would take, seeking to dispel a useless sorrow,"
answers the wise woman; "the way to London."

"God bless you!" cries Moll, clasping the withered old woman to her
heaving breast and kissing her. Then the next moment she would be gone,
bidding me get horses for our pursuit.

So, as quickly as I might, I procured a couple of nags, and we set out,
leaving a message for Don Sanchez, who was not yet astir. And we should
have gone empty, but that while the horses were a-preparing (and Moll,
despite her mighty haste at this business too), I took the precaution to
put some store of victuals in a saddle bag.

Reckoning that Mr. Godwin (as I must henceforth call him) had been set
out two hours or thereabouts, I considered that we might overtake him in
about three at an easy amble. But Moll was in no mood for ambling, and
no sooner were we started than she put her nag to a gallop and kept up
this reckle