"
This was thoroughly approved by Grisell's little council, and Lambert
undertook to make known to the good esquire the best means of
communication, whether in person, or by the transmission of payments,
since all the eastern ports of England had connections with Dutch and
Flemish traffic, which made the payment of monies possible.
Grisell meantime was asking for Thora. Her uncle, Ridley said, had
come up, laid hands on her, and soundly scourged her for her foul
practices. He had dragged her home, and when Ralph Hart had come
after her, had threatened him with a quarter-staff, called out a mob
of fishermen, and finally had brought him to Sir Lucas, who married
them willy-nilly. He was the runaway son of a currier in York, and
had taken her en croupe, and ridden off to his parents at the sign of
the Hart, to bespeak their favour.
Grisell grieved deeply over Thora's ingratitude to her, and the two
elder men foreboded no favourable reception for the pair, and hoped
that Thora would sup sorrow.
Ridley spent the night at the sign of tire Green Serpent, and before
he set out for Willimoteswick, he confided to Master Groot a bag
containing a silver cup or two, and a variety of coins, mostly
French. They were, he said, spoils of his wars under King Harry the
Fifth and the two Lord Salisburys, which he had never had occasion to
spend, and he desired that they might be laid out on the Lady Grisell
in case of need, leaving her to think they were the dues from her
faithful tenantry.
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