JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
"The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim,
And lieveth on Mahound;
And pity it were that lady fayre
Should marry a heathen hound."
Kyng Estmere.
About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to
the great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds. Rose
Salterne had vanished in the night, no man knew whither.
Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to send
for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill with all the
idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a maiden-hunt very good
sport; and of course taking a view of the case as favorable as possible
to Rose.
They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old
heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to throw
herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all the women of
Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion that the hussy had
"gone off" with some bad fellow; and that pride was sure to have a fall,
and so forth.
The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left behind,
so that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing seemed to be
missing, but some of her linen, which old Anthony the steward broadly
hinted was likely to be found in other people's boxes.
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