"I heard that he lingered for a short time in the forest before his
departure for Paris," said Dame Quanden. "There was a strange rumour
that he had joined the band of Herne the Hunter. But that must have
been untrue."
"Is he returned from France?" inquired Mabel, without heeding the
remark.
I fancy not," replied the good dame. " At all events, he is not come to
the castle. Know you not," she added, in a low confidential tone, "that
the king is jealous of him? He was a former suitor to the Lady Anne
Boleyn, and desperately in love with her; and it is supposed that his
mission to France was only a pretext to get him out of the way."
"I suspected as much," replied Mabel. "Alas! for Sir Thomas; and alas!
for the Earl of Surrey."
"And alas! for Mabel Lyndwood, if she allows her heart to be fixed upon
the king," said Deborah.
While this was passing the business of the kitchen, which had been
interrupted by the various incidents above related, and especially by
the conflict between the two jesters, was hurried forward, and for some
time all was bustle and confusion.
But as soon as the supper was served, and all his duties were fully
discharged, Simon Quanden, who had been bustling about, sat down in
his easy-chair, and recruited himself with a toast and a sack posset.
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