"
"Would you not take us as your pages, Mr. Francis?" Lionel urged.
"We would do faithful service, and then when we come of age that
you could enter us as volunteers we should already have learnt a
little of war."
"Well, well, I cannot stop to talk to you now, for I am on my way
to the Tower on business. I am only over from Holland for a day or
two with despatches from the Earl to Her Majesty's Council, and am
lodging at Westminster in a house that faces the abbey. It is one
of my cousin Edward's houses, and you will see the Vere cognizance
over the door. Call there at one hour after noon, and I will have
a talk with you; but do not buoy yourselves up with hopes as to
your going with me." So saying, with a friendly nod of his head
Francis Vere continued his way eastward.
"What think you, Allen?" he asked his comrade as they went along.
"I should like to take the lads with me if I could. Their father,
who is the rector of Hedingham, taught my cousin Edward as well as
my brothers and myself. I saw a good deal of the boys when I was
at home. They are sturdy young fellows, and used to practise daily,
as we did at their age, with the men-at-arms at the castle, and
can use their weapons. A couple of years of apprenticeship would
be good schooling for them. One cannot begin to learn the art of
war too young, and it is because we have all been so ignorant of
it that our volunteers in Holland have not done better.
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