The Chancery’s notice came up the causeway at the second hour of the morning, carried by two Lessaran wardens on a single horse, and Tallow was already standing at the inside stake when they reached it, because he had been told by the Watchman on the bar that the Crown’s riders had been seen at the toll-house, and a clerk who has been told a thing by a Watchman goes to see it for himself.
He had come up from the Hold at first light, on foot, along the marsh road and the causeway, which was a long walk even for a clerk who had decided to make it. He had made it with the minute-book buttoned inside his coat and the Ink-lamp in his pocket, and his feet were wet to the ankle and his temper was not improving. He stood at the stake’s iron bar with the Watchman at his elbow and watched the riders come up the planks. They did not hurry. They rode the way men ride when they have been paid by the day and have been told that the paper they carry is more important than their own safety.
The taller of the two dismounted at the stake and held out a folded sheet, sealed in green wax, with the Chancery’s double bar stamped into it.
