The Clash of Arms

"If," said the sick man, a little complainingly, perhaps a little peevishly, "he comes not soon, he is as like as not to see me in my coffin. Yet," he added a moment later, "he was ever used to keep his word. With all his faults he always did that. Prided himself on it, indeed, almost as much as on the broils and fights and troubles he was always in." "If," said the other person in the room, "he said he would come, he will come. Andrew Vause ever kept his promise." "What did he tell the messenger who found him when he rode to London?-in a tavern, be sure! Tell me again the message he sent." "That he would come the instant he had seen the King-which it was most urgent he should do. That His Majesty had promised him an interview for to-day, and that the moment it was over he would take horse and ride here. Also he sent you this," and the old woman drew from a pouch at her girdle a bit of paper, and, adjusting her glasses, began to read what was written on it-though as she did so she could not resist a smile.