"
"And what might he find on thine, Norton?" said the fiery leader.
"A cook's rolling-pin and a mutton pasty." A loud laugh here announced
the hit, of which this sally was the bearer, it being levelled directly
at the well-known propensities of the personage to whom it was
addressed.
"Come, friends all," said the archbishop; "let not the gibe and jest go
round; there be matters of graver import that should occupy us this
night. To-morrow, let the elements be propitious, and the day is won."
"Od's life," said Aske; "surely the rain will not again prevent us from
passing the river, as it did in our last campaign."
"If it do," cried a deep and melancholy voice from the lower end of the
table, "then will I say this Pilgrimage of Grace is the device of man,
and not of God, and the work will not prosper."
This ominous anticipation seemed to strike terror into the most
stout-hearted. "Foul fa' the croaking raven!" said Aske. "No good comes
on't, when the Lord of Ravenswood breaks from his usual silence.
Mischief follows, safe as the bolt after the flash."
"Hush! my son," said the archbishop to this bird of ill-omen; "thou
speakest unwisely.
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