"Ay, sure, both of us; but Ambrose is the best scribe," said
Stephen.

"One of you had best write then. Let that cur John know that I have
my Lord of York's ear, and there will be no fear but he will give
it. I'll find a safe hand among the clerks, when the judges ride to
hold the assize. Mayhap Ambrose might also write to the Father at
Beaulieu. The thing had best be bruited."

"I wished to do so," said Ambrose. "It irked me to have taken no
leave of the good Fathers."

Randall then took his leave, having little more than time to return
to York House, where the Archbishop might perchance come home
wearied and chafed from the King, and the jester might be missed if
not there to put him in good humour.

The curfew sounded, and though attention to its notes was not
compulsory by law, it was regarded as the break-up of the evening
and the note of recall in all well-ordered establishments. The
apprentices and journeymen came into the court, among them Giles
Headley, who had been taken out by one of the men to be provided
with a working dress, much to his disgust; the grandmother summoned
little Dennet and carried her off to bed. Stephen and Ambrose bade
good-night, but Master Headley and his two confidential men remained
somewhat longer to wind up their accounts. Doors were not, as a
rule, locked within the court, for though it contained from forty to
fifty persons, they were all regarded as a single family, and it was
enough to fasten the heavily bolted, iron-studded folding doors of