For he seemed a man whose wont it was never to get his due.
I was solacing my impatience as I waited for vespers, by pacing to and fro in the wood which divided the road to Dover from the convent wall; when I was startled to come suddenly upon a horse, saddled and bridled, tied up in a covert.

It had a pillion on its back; and seemed like the beast on which a farmer and his wife might ride together to market.

So, indeed, I thought it to be, when, looking about me, I perceived in the saddle-bow a knife, the hilt of which I had seen before.

It was, in fact, a knife I had myself given to Peter, one day two years ago, when I had won a new one at Finsbury Fields, and when my fellow 'prentice and I were better friends than we became later on.
The sight of this knife suddenly brought the blood to my head with a mighty rush.

For it showed that this horse waited here for Peter; and if for Peter, for what lady was the pillion provided?
I had wit enough, without a moment's delay, to hide myself among the trees; assured that whatever mischief was in the air, it would come at length to this trysting place.