Paul pressed the hand he held, but said nothing.  He feared only too well what they would hear in London.  But yet, inasmuch as he was young and ardent, he hoped even whilst he feared; and talking and planning their future in glowing colours, both the lads fell asleep.

The following days were bright and busy ones at the farm.  The peddler had vanished ere the travellers were downstairs next morning; but they had bought all they required overnight, and did not trouble about that.  There was a great stirring throughout the house, and the needles of mistress and maid were flying swiftly whilst the short daylight lasted.

Edward and Paul spent the morning hours in the selection of a horse fit to carry the prince on his journey to London, and the farmer’s son brought all the spare colts and lighter steeds into the straw yard for their guest to try and select for himself.  There was no horse quite so handsome or well bred as Sultan, and Paul was eager for Edward to accept his steed in place of another.  But the prince only laughed and shook his head, in the end selecting a fine chestnut colt only just broken to the wearing of the halter; and the kinsmen spent the best part of the next days in teaching the mettlesome though tractable creature how to answer to the rein and submit to saddle and rider.  It was shod at Ives’s forge, and christened by the name of Crusader, and soon learned to love the lads, who, whilst showing themselves masters of its wildest moods, were yet kindly and gentle in their handling.

The young prince was in great spirits during these days.  He had been all his life somewhat too much under the close restraint of an affectionate but dictatorial mother, and had been master of none of his own actions.  Such restraint was galling to a high-spirited youth; and although the sweetness of disposition inherited from his father had carried the prince through life without rebellion or repining, yet this foretaste of liberty was very delightful, and the romance of being thus unknown and obscure, free to go where he would unquestioned and unmarked, exercised a great fascination over him, and made him almost forget the shadow which sometimes seemed to hang over his path.

Paul was as light hearted as his companion in the main, though there were moments when his joy at having his adored prince under his care was dashed by the feeling of responsibility in such a charge, and by the fear of peril to the hope of the House of Lancaster.  He wondered if it were his fancy that the farm was watched; that there were often stealthy steps heard without in the night—­steps that set the dogs barking furiously, but which never could be accounted for next day; that if he rode or walked down the cart road to the village alone or with his comrade, their movements were followed by watchful eyes—­eyes that seemed now and again to glare at him, as in the dusk that first evening, but which always melted away into the shadows of the forest if looked at closely or followed and tracked.