O the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree,
          They flourish best at home in the north countree.

Flori, Flori, whither away?  Ah! thou hast found thine old friend.  Birds of a feather.  Eh? the young folk have foregathered likewise.  Watch!  And thou, sir knight, whither are you away?’

’On our way to Norfolk in case the Duke of York should show himself on the coast.  And yours, reverend Mother?’

’To Canterbury first by easy journeys.  We sleep to-night at the Tabard, where we shall meet other pilgrims.’

’Here, alack! our way severs from yours.  Farewell, holy Mother, may you find health on your pilgrimage.’

‘Every breath I take in is health,’ said the Mother, who had already manoeuvred an opening in her veil, and gasped to throw it back as soon as she should attain an unfrequented place.  ’There are so many coming and going here that all the air is used up by their greasy nostrils!  Well! good luck, and God’s blessing go with you, and you, young Hal, I may say so far, whichever side ye be, but still I hold that York has the right, and yours may be a saint, but not a king.’

Hal had meantime ‘forgathered’ as the Prioress said with Anne, marching, in spite of his new honours, close to her stirrup, and venturing to whisper to her that he was now her knight, and ’her colours,’ which he was to wear for her, were only a tiny scrap of ribbon from her glove, which he cut off with his dagger, and kissed, saying he should wear it next his heart, though he might not do so openly.

Their love was more implied than ever it had been before, and she repeated her confidence that the kind Prioress would never leave her till she had done her utmost for them both.

’But you, my good stripling, I am ashamed to see you.  I have done nothing for you.  I sent a humble message to ask to see the Archbishop, but had no answer, and by-and-by, when I stirred again, who should come to sec me but young Bertram Selby, and “Kinswoman,” said he, “you had best keep quiet.  The Archbishop hath asked me whether rumours were sooth that yours was scarce a regular Priory.”  The squire stood up for me and said, as became one of the family, that an outlying cell, where there were ill neighbours of Scots, thieves, borderers, and the like, could scarce look to be as trim as a city nunnery, and that none had ever heard harm of Mother Agnes.  But then one of his priests took on him to whisper in his ear, and he demanded whether we had not gone so far as to hide traitors from justice, to which Bertram returned a stout denial as well he might, though he thought it well to give me warning, but for the present there was no use in attempting anything more.  The Archbishop was exceedingly busy with the work of his office and the defence of London in case of Edward’s threatened return; but he had not yet come, and no one thought there was a reasonable doubt that Warwick, the Kingmaker, would not be victorious, and he had carried his son-in-law, the Duke of Clarence, with him.’  After the cause of the Red Rose was won, there was no fear but that the services of Clifford would be remembered.  So Harry Clifford parted with Anne, promising himself and her that there should be fresh Clifford services, winning a recognition of the De Vesci inheritance if of no more.