his
assistant. The worthy pair were now of the same mind; for guests known
to Lord Hastings it was worth braving the threats of the tymbesteres;
especially since Lord Hastings, it seems, had just beaten the
Lancastrians.

But alas! while the active Meg was busy on the hippocras, and the worthy
landlord was inspecting the savoury operations of the kitchen, a vast
uproar was heard without. A troop of disorderly Yorkist soldiers, who
had been employed in dispersing the flying rebels, rushed helter-skelter
into the house, and poured into the kitchen, bearing with them the
detested tymbesteres, who had encountered them on their way. Among these
soldiers were those who had congregated at Master Sancroft's the day
before, and they were well prepared to support the cause of their
griesly paramours. Lord Hastings himself had retired for the night to
a farmhouse nearer the field of battle than the hostel; and as in those
days discipline was lax enough after a victory, the soldiers had a right
to license. Master Porpustone found himself completely at the mercy
of these brawling customers, the more rude and disorderly from the
remembrance of the sour beer in the morning, and Graul Skellet's
assurances that Master Porpustone was a malignant Lancastrian. They laid
hands on all the provisions in the house, tore the meats from the spit,
devouring them half raw; set the casks running over the floors; and
while they swilled and swore, and filled the place with the uproar of a
hell broke loose, Graul Skellet, whom the lust for the rich garments of
Sibyll still fired and stung, led her followers up the stairs towards
the deserted chamber. Mine host perceived, but did not dare openly to
resist the foray; but as he was really a good-natured knave, and as,
moreover, he feared ill consequences might ensue if any friends of Lord
Hastings were spoiled, outraged,--nay, peradventure murdered,--in his
house, he resolved, at all events, to assist the escape of his guests.
Seeing the ground thus clear of the tymbesteres, he therefore stole from
the riotous scene, crept up the back stairs, gained the chamber to which
he had so happily removed his persecuted lodgers, and making them, in a
few words, sensible that he was no longer able to protect them, and
that the tymbesteres were now returned with an armed force to back their
malice, conducted them safely to a wide casement only some three or four
feet from the soil of the solitary garden, and bade th