"Ho! ho! my kingdom and my subjects?" answered Richard, impatiently; "I tell thee, Sir Wilfrid, the best of them are most willing to repay my follies in kind—For example, my very faithful servant, Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, will not obey my positive commands, and yet reads his king a homily, because he does not walk exactly to his advice. Which of us has most reason to upbraid the other?—Yet forgive me, my faithful Wilfrid. The time I have spent, and am yet to spend in concealment, is, as I explained to thee at Saint Botolph's, necessary to give my friends and faithful nobles time to assemble their forces, that when Richard's return is announced, he should be at the head of such a force as enemies shall tremble to face, and thus subdue the meditated treason, without even unsheathing a sword. Estoteville and Bohun will not be strong enough to move forward to York for twenty-four hours. I must have news of Salisbury from the south; and of Beauchamp, in Warwickshire; and of Multon and Percy, in the north. The Chancellor must make sure of London. Too sudden an appearance would subject me to dangers, other
