oon rose soon I was
content enough, dreaming of her from whom I had parted so lately.

I will not say that the wish for revenge on Matelgar had clean gone, for
him I hated sorely. But for me to strike the blow that I had longed for
would be to lose Alswythe, and so I must long for the words of sooth to
come true, that I might see revenge by other hands than mine. Then again
must I think of hurt to Matelgar as of hurt to Alswythe, so that I dared
not ponder much on the matter; but at last was fain to be minded to wait
and let the hermit's words work themselves out, and again fall to my
dreaming of great deeds to come.

Out of those dreams I had a rough waking, that told me that I was not
all a cool warrior yet.

Something brushed by the door of the hut with clatter of dry chips, and
snarl, as it went, and my heart stopped, and then beat furiously, while
a cold chill went over me with the start, and I sprang up and back,
drawing my sword. And it was but a gray badger pattering past the hut,
which he feared not, it having been deserted for so long, on his search
for food.

Then I was angry with myself, for I could not have been more feared had
it been a full pack of wolves; but at last I laughed at my fears, and
began to look round the hut in the moonlight. Soon I had shut and barred
the heavy door, and laid myself down to sleep, with a log for pillow.

Though sleep seemed long in coming, it came at last, and it was heavy
and dreamless, until the sun shone through the chinks between the logs
whereof the hut was built, and I woke.

Then I rose up, opened the door, and looked out on the morning. The
level sunbeams crept through the trees and made everything very fresh
and fair, and a little light frost hung over twigs and young fern fronds
everywhere, so that I seemed in the land of fairy instead of the
Quantocks. The birds were singing loudly, and a squirrel came and
chattered at me, and then, running up a bough, sat up, still as if
carved from the wood it was resting on, and watched me seemingly without
fear. Then I went down the combe and sought a pool, and bathed, and ate
the last of the food the collier had given me. Where I should get more I
knew not, nor cared just then, for it was enough to carry me on for the
next day and night, if need be, seeing that I had been bred to a
hunter's life in the open, and a Saxon should need but one full meal in
the day, whether first or last.

Now while I ate and thought, it