CHAPTER XXXI

VALEDICTION By heavy, miry roads, against a chill October wind and through a country all golden now in its autumn garb, the Earl of Somerset rode recklessly from Royston with no more than two grooms to attend him. He covered the distance almost at a stretch, with only two brief pauses at Hitchin and Saint Albans, where fresh horses were procured, nor slackened from a gallop until nightfall and darkness made it imperative to go more cautiously. He came at last, towards midnight, a spent man on a spent horse, with tw…