‘Or a young one either, if I can help it Mother Rees,’ answered Richard.  ’But come now, thou must trust me, and tell me all I want to know.’

He drew from his pocket paper and pencil, and began to put to her question after question as to the courts and the various buildings forming them, with their chief doors and windows, and ever as she gave him an answer, he added its purport to the rough plan he was drawing of the place.

‘Listen to me, Master Heywood,’ said the old woman at length after a long, silence, during which he had been pondering over his paper.  ‘An’ thou get once into the fountain court thou will know where thee is by the marble horse that stands in the middle of it.  Turn then thy back to the horse, with the yellow tower above thee upon thy right hand, and thee will be facing the great hall.  On the other side of the hall is the pitched court with its great gate and double portcullis and drawbridge.  Nearly at thy back, but to thy right hand, will lie the gate to the bowling-green.  At which of these gates does thee think to lead out thy mare?’

‘An’ I pass at all, mother, it will be on her back, not at her head.’

’Thou wilt not pass, my son.  Be counselled.  To thy mare, thou wilt but lose thyself.’

Richard heard her as though he heard her not.

‘At what hour doth the moon rise, mistress Rees?’ he asked.

’What would thou with the moon?” she returned.  “Is not she the enemy of him who roves for plunder?  Shines she not that the thief may be shaken out of the earth?’

’I am not thief enough to steal in the dark, mother.  How shall I tell without her help where I am or whither I go?’

‘She will be half way to the top of her hill by midnight.’

‘An’ thou speak by the card, then is it time that Marquis and I were going.’

’Here, take thee some fern-seed in thy pouch, that thou may walk invisible,’ said the old woman.  ’If thee chance to be an hungred, then eat thereof,’ she added, as she transferred something from her pocket to his.

She called the dog and opened the chamber door.  Out came Marquis, walked to Richard, and stood looking up in his face as if he knew perfectly that his business was to accompany him.  Richard bade the old woman good night, and stepped from the cottage.

No sooner was he in the darkness with the dog, than, fearing he might lose sight of him, he tied his handkerchief round the dog’s neck, and fastened to it the thong of his riding whip—­the sole weapon he had brought with him—­and so they walked together, Marquis pulling Richard on.  Ere long the moon rose, and the country dawned into the dim creation of the light.