At curfew toll
I must quit the castle, and will then, with your attendants proceed to
the Garter, in Thames Street, where I will await your arrival. If we reach
Hampton Court by midnight, it will be time enough, and as the moon will
rise in an hour, we shall have a pleasant ride."
"Commend me to Bryan Bowntance, the worthy host of the Garter," said
the earl; "and bid him provide you with a bottle of his best sack in which
to drink my health."
"Fear me not," replied the other. "And I pray your lordship not to
neglect my caution respecting Herne the Hunter. In sober sooth, I have
heard strange stories of his appearance of late, and should not care to
go near the tree after dark."
The earl laughed somewhat sceptically, and the captain reiterating his
caution, they separated--Bouchier returning the way he came, and
Surrey proceeding towards a small drawbridge crossing the ditch on
the eastern side of the castle, and forming a means of communication
with the Little Park. He was challenged by a sentinel at the
drawbridge, but on giving the password he was allowed to cross it, and
to pass through a gate on the farther side opening upon the park.
Brushing the soft and dewy turf with a footstep almost as light and
bounding as that of a fawn, he speeded on for more than a quarter of a
mile, when he reached a noble beech-tree standing at the end of a
clump of timber.
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