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my services. But this is nothing. There is not one in London who would not

do aught in his power for Harold, and who would scorn to take pay for

it. As this is a matter in which his very life may be concerned, though I

am but a boy, and a small one at that, there is nought that I would not do,

even to the giving of my life, to spoil these Norman plots."

Osgod was about to chide the boy angrily for this freedom of speech, but

Wulf checked him.

"You are right, lad; and I am sorry I spoke of a reward. I myself would

have answered the same at your age, and would have died for Harold then as

I would now. I should have bethought me that the feelings of Englishmen,

gentle or simple, are the same towards the king, and I crave your pardon

for treating your loyal service as a thing to be paid for with money."

The boy's eyes filled with tears; he dropped on one knee, and seizing

Wulf's hand placed it to his lips, and then without a word sped away,

halting a hundred yards off till Osgod should join him.

"You have made a good choice," Wulf said; "the boy is wholly trustworthy,

and unless his face belies him he is as shrewd as he is faithful. My only

fear in the matter is, that he may be over rash in his desire to carry out

the trust we have given him. Warn him against that, and tell him that

should he be discovered and killed it would upset all our plans."

CHAPTER XV.

A MEETING BY THE RIVER.

During the three days that elapsed between Ulf's being set upon the track

of Walter Fitz-Urse and the departure of the king for the North, the boy

had no news to report to Osgod. The young Norman had not left the bishop's

palace alone. He had accompanied the prelate several times when he went

abroad, and had gone out with some of his countrymen who still held office

at the court. In one or other of the disguises Wulf had suggested, the boy

had hung about the gate of the bishop's palace until late in the evening,

but Walter Fitz-Urse had not come out after dark. On the day before

starting, Wulf was with Osgod when the latter met the boy at the

rendezvous.

After he heard Ulf's report Wulf said: "As we leave to-morrow this is the

last report you will have to make to us. So far it would seem that there is

nothing whatever to give grounds for suspicion, and if, after a few days,

you find that the Norman still remains quietly at the bishop's, there will

be no occasion for you to continue your watch until the time is approaching

for the king's return."

"Yes, my lord. But I cannot say surely that he does not go out of an

evening."

"Why, I thought you said that he certainly had not done so?"

"No, my lord; I said only that I had not seen him. He has certainly not

gone out through the great gates in his Norman dress, but that it seems to

me shows very little. As the bishop's guest he would pass out there, but

there is another entrance behind that he might use did he wish to go out

unobserved. Even at the main entrance I cannot tell but that, beneath the

cowl and frock of one of the many monks who pass in and out, Walter

Fitz-Urse may not be hidden. He would scarce go about such a business as we

suspect in his dress as a Norman noble, which is viewed with little favour

here in London, and would draw attention towards him, but would assume, as

I do, some disguise in which he could go about unremarked--it might be that

of a monk, it might be that of a lay servitor of the palace."

"You are right, Ulf; I had not thought of that. That is indeed a

difficulty, and one that I do not see how you can get over. Are you sure

that he has not passed out by the main gate?"

"I have marked his walk and carriage closely, my lord. He steps along with

a long stride, and unless he be a better mummer than I judge him to be, I

should know him whether in a monk's gown or a servitor's cloak. It is no

easy thing to change a knight's stride into the shuffle of a sandalled

monk, or the noiseless step of a well-trained servitor in a bishop's

palace."

"You are a shrewd lad indeed, Ulf," Wulf said warmly; "and I feel that you

will fathom this matter if there be aught at the bottom. But, as you say,

you cannot watch more than one place."

"The other entrance is not altogether unwatched, my lord. The first day

you gave me my orders I went to one of my cronies, who has shared with me

in many an expedition when our master deemed that we were soundly asleep.

Without, as you may be sure, giving any reason, I told him that I had come

to believe that the Norman I pointed out to him was in the habit of going

out in disguise, and that I was mightily curious to find whither he went

and why, and therefore wanted him to watch, at the entrance behind the

palace. I bade him mark the walk of the persons that went out, and their

height, for the Norman is tall, and to follow any who might come out of

lofty stature, and with a walk and carriage that seemed to accord ill with

his appearance. So each evening, as soon as his house was closed and the

lights extinguished, he has slipped out, as he knows how, and has watched

till ten o'clock at the gate. It seemed to me that that would be late

enough, and indeed the doors are closed at that hour."

"You have done well, Ulf; but has not the boy questioned you as to your

reasons for thus setting a watch on the Norman?"

"I have told him nought beyond what I have said, my lord. He may guess

shrewdly enough that I should not myself take so much trouble in the matter

unless I had more reason than I have given; but we are closely banded

together, and just as I should do, without asking the reasons, any such

action did he propose it to me, so he carried out my wishes. I cannot feel

as sure as if I had watched him myself that Fitz-Urse has not passed out in

disguise unnoticed, but I have a strong belief that it is so. At any rate,

my lord, you can go away with the assurance that all that is possible shall

be done by us, and that even if he pass out once or twice undiscovered

there is good hope that we shall at last detect him."

After again commending the boy, Wulf returned to the palace with Osgod.

"I feel half ashamed of having entertained a suspicion of Fitz-Urse on such

slight grounds, Osgod."

"I think you have done quite right, my lord. You know how the fellow gave a

false report to the bishop of that quarrel with you. At any rate, should

nothing come of it, no harm will have been done. As to the boys, so far

from regarding it as a trouble, I feel sure that they view it as an

exciting pleasure, and are as keenly anxious to detect the Norman going out

in a disguise as you yourself can be. When they get tired of it they will

give it up."

Ulf, at any rate, was determined not to relax his watch during the absence

of the king. The more he thought of it the more certain he felt that if

Walter Fitz-Urse went out on any private business after nightfall he would

use one or other of the entrances at the rear of the palace, and

accordingly next day he arranged that one friend should watch the front

entrance of an evening, while he himself took post behind. As soon as it

was dark he lay down by the wall close to the entrance at which the

servitors generally passed in and out. The moon was up but was still young,

and the back of the palace lay in deep shadow; a projecting buttress

screened him to a great extent from view, while by peeping round the corner

he could watch those who came out and see them as they passed from the

shadow of the building into the comparatively light space beyond.

Many came in and out. The evening was bitterly cold, and his teeth

chattered as he lay, cautiously putting his head beyond the edge of the

stonework every time he heard any one leaving the palace. The heavy bell

had just struck eight, when a man wrapt up in a cloak passed out. He

differed in no respect from many of those who had preceded him, save that

he was somewhat taller. The hood of the cloak was drawn over his head. Ulf

raised himself to his knees and gazed after the figure. The man was walking

more slowly than the others had done, for most of them had hurried along as

if in haste to get their errands finished and to be in shelter again from

the keen wind.

"If that is Fitz-Urse, he is walking so as to avoid the appearance of haste

in case anyone should be looking after him," Ulf muttered to himself. "At

any rate I will follow him, he is more like the Norman than anyone I have

yet seen, though he carries his head forwarder and his shoulders more

rounded." As he watched him, the boy saw that as he increased the distance

from the palace the man quickened his pace, and when he came into the

moonlight was stepping rapidly along.

"That is my man," Ulf exclaimed. "He knows well enough that no one is

likely to be standing at the door, and thinks he need no longer walk

cautiously." Feeling sure that even if the man looked back he would not be

able to see him in the shadow, he started forward at a run, paused before

he reached the edge of the moonlight, and then, as soon as the figure

entered a lane between some houses, ran forward at the top of his speed.

The man was but a hundred yards in front of him when Ulf came to the

entrance of the lane. Just as he turned into it the man stopped and looked

round, and Ulf threw himself down by the side of a wall.

"That settles it," he said to himself. "No one who had not a fear of being

followed would turn and look round on such a night as this."

Ulf was barefooted, for although he generally wore soft shoes which were

almost as noiseless as the naked foot, he was dressed in rags, and a foot

covering of any sort would have been out of place. Always keeping in the

shade, having his eyes fixed on the man he was pursuing, and holding

himself in readiness to leap into a doorway or throw himself down should he

see him turn his head, he lessened the distance until he was within some

fifty yards of the other. The man took several turns, and at last entered a

long street leading down to the river. As soon as Ulf saw him enter it he

darted off at full speed, turned down another lane, and then, when he got

beyond the houses, and on to the broken ground that lay between them and

the river, ran until he was nearly facing the end of the street which he

had seen the man enter, and then threw himself down.

He had scarcely done so when he saw the figure issue from the street and

strike across the open ground towards the water. Crawling along on his

stomach Ulf followed him, until he halted on the bank The man looked up and

down the river, stamped his foot impatiently, and then began to walk to and

fro. Presently he stopped and appeared to be listening; Ulf did the same,

and soon heard the distant splash of oars. They came nearer and nearer. Ulf

could not see the boat, for it was close under the bank, which was some

twenty yards away from him, but presently when the boat seemed almost

abreast of him the man on the bank said, "Where do you come from?"

"From fishing in deep water," a voice replied.

"That is right, come ashore."

The words were spoken by both in a language Ulf could not understand, and

he muttered a Saxon oath. The thought that any conversation Fitz-Urse might

have with a Norman would naturally be in that tongue had never once

occurred to him. Three men mounted the bank. One shook hands with

Fitz-Urse, the others had doffed their caps and stood listening bareheaded

to the conversation between their superiors. It was long and animated. At

first the stranger stamped his foot and seemed disappointed at the news

Fitz-Urse gave him, then as the latter continued to speak he seemed more

satisfied.

For fully half an hour they talked, then the men got into the boat and

rowed away, and Fitz-Urse turned and walked back to the palace.

Ulf did not follow him. The meeting for which Fitz-Urse had come out had

taken place, he would be sure to go straight back to the palace. Ulf lay

there for some time fairly crying with vexation. He had done something, he

had discovered that Fitz-Urse was indeed engaged in some undertaking that

had to be conducted with the greatest secrecy; but this was little to what

he would have learned had he understood the language. His only consolation

was that both Wulf and Osgod had likewise forgotten the probability that

the conversations he was charged to overhear might be in Norman.

Had Wulf still been in London he could have gone to him for fresh

instructions, but he had started at daybreak, and the king's party would

assuredly ride fast. There was no time to be lost. These men had a boat,

and probably came from a ship in the port. Were there really a conspiracy

against the king they might sail north and land in the Humber, though it

seemed more probable that they would wait for his return, for on his

journey he would be surrounded by his housecarls, and there would be far

less chance of finding him alone and unguarded than in London. Had it been

their intention to sail at once for the North, Walter Fitz-Urse would

probably have rowed away with them without returning to the palace. At any

rate it was too important a matter for him to trust to his own judgment,

and he determined to take counsel with his master.

He had not been near the forge since he had begun the search, and was

supposed to have gone down to stay with his family, who lived near Reading.

He had hidden away his apprentice dress beneath some stones in a field half

a mile from Westminster, and he presented himself in this at the forge in

the morning.

"You are back sooner than I expected, Ulf," Ulred said as he entered. "I

did not look for you for another week to come. Is all well at home?"

"All is well, master; but I have a message to deliver to you concerning

some business."

The armourer saw that his apprentice wished to speak to him in private. He

knew nothing of the reason for which Osgod had asked him to release the boy