During the refection, that was served immediately, Urswicke was most amiable and paid particular attention to De Lacy and De Wilton.  By most astute and careful conversation he sought to draw from them information as to the King’s programme during the Autumn; how long he would remain at Pontefract, and whither his course when he left there.  Yet with all the art of an adept, he risked no direct question and displayed no particular interest in these matters, when by his very manoeuvring they were touched upon.  But De Wilton had been bred in the atmosphere of Gloucester’s household and De Lacy had been trained by years of service amid Italian and French plotters; and they both quickly discerned that the Abbot and the Priest-Knight were working together, and they only smiled and played them off against each other; and at the end of the meal, what the two had learned of Richard’s intentions was likely to be of scant profit to either Henry Tudor or his scheming mother.

“What a precious pair of priestly scoundrels!” De Wilton exclaimed, when he and De Lacy had mounted and were trotting toward the gate.

“They will be the first knocked on the head if Raynor Royk has located the Countess,” said Aymer.

“By the saintly Benedict! why not do the knocking now and then hear Raynor’s report?” De Wilton laughed.

“It would give me great pleasure and doubtless be altogether proper as a matter of abstract justice; but I fear rather impolitic.  Best wait for Royk.”

But Royk’s search was barren; and so the Abbot Aldam and Sir Christopher Urswicke were left to their plotting, while Sir Aymer De Lacy and Sir Ralph De Wilton rode Westward, seeking vainly for a clue to the lost Lady of Clare.

XVIII

THE HOUSE IN SHEFFIELD

Three weeks later, toward evening, Sir Aymer de Lacy with a dozen weary and travel-stained men-at-arms rode into Sheffield and drew up before the Inn of the Red Lion.  In fog and rain and sunshine, by day and by night, they had kept to the search, and all in vain.

The morning after leaving Kirkstall Abbey, De Lacy and De Wilton had separated.  It was useless to hold so many men together when there was no immediate prospect of a fight or even a hard stern chase; and there would be much more profit in dividing them into small bodies and so spreading over a wider stretch of country.  De Wilton with half of the force turned Northward to cover the section beyond the Wharfe, while De Lacy with the others kept on toward Lancaster; and these he further divided and subdivided until there was scarce a hamlet or bridle-path in the West Riding that had not been visited.

As the days passed with no fortune for him, and no word from the King of success elsewhere, he went from fierce anger to stern determination and from headlong haste to dogged persistency.  He had refused to entertain for an instant the notion that the Countess of Clare was dead, though he knew that such had become the prevailing view at Court, and that even Richard himself was growing fearful lest murder had followed the abduction.