During this speech the eyes of the young Lord of Carleton had grown bright as with a fever; and he could hardly wait for my father to come to an end before crying out:
“Oh, good Mountjoy! My friend—if thou art my friend indeed, stay this goodly enterprise but a few short months—or weeks mayhap—and let me join with thee. This outlaw chief, whom now I learn is called the Monkslayer from certain of his bloody deeds, hath offered both injury and insult to the House of Carleton. Two of my faithful men he slew, and me he took prisoner, and would have held for high ransom, if indeed he spared my life, had it not been for Sir Richard and Cedric here and that worthy old archer of Mountjoy who met his death fighting in my behalf. Give me but two short months—I ask no more—to heal me of my wound and make some practice of arms; and I will ride with thee to the hunting of this outlaw and his band with forty men-at-arms and eight score archers from Carleton and Teramore. So shall we make short and sure work of it.”
My father gazed at the glowing face of our new-made friend; and plain it was to me that the liking he had at first conceived for the lad suffered nothing from this headlong eagerness to be up and doing with arms in his hands. Turning to Cedric and me, with a broad and happy smile, Lord Mountjoy said:
“Well, lads, ’twas your quarrel and Sir Geoffrey’s at the first. What say you? Shall we risk the scattering and ’scaping of these rogues by waiting till the fall for him? For I plainly see that, with all good will, he cannot rightly ride and fight before that time in such a rough campaign as this will be.”
“Oh, let us wait, Father!” I cried, “Sir Geoffrey hath the right in saying ’tis especially the Carleton’s quarrel; and ’twill be a fine sight for all the countryside to see the banners of Mountjoy and of Carleton waving together in so good a cause after all these years of enmity. Mayhap Sir Geoffrey will return with usury the arrow-shot he had from those scurvy knaves. If so, ’twill not be an ill beginning for his career in arms.”
Cedric, who was ever of few words, nodded his head at this speech of mine; and so ’twas settled among us. Through the summer months we would strike no blow at the outlaws save in defense, but at the fall of the leaf, when the woods made not so close a cover, we would fall upon them in their fastnesses with all our forces at once, and so destroy and scatter them that the woodland roads of the whole county would be free of their kind for years to come.