greed De Bracy. "I should be ashamed to couch
lance against them."

"True," answered Front-de-Boeuf, drily, "were they black Turks or Moors,
Sir Templar, or the craven peasants of France, most valiant De Bracy;
but these are English yeomen, over whom we shall have no advantage save
what we may derive from our arms and horses, which will avail us little
in the glades of the forest. Sally, saidst thou? We have scarce men
enough to defend the castle. The best of mine are at York; so is your
band, De Bracy; and we have scarce twenty, besides the handful that were
engaged in this mad business."

"Thou dost not fear," said the Templar, "that they can assemble in force
sufficient to attempt the castle?"

"Not so, Sir Brian," answered Front-de-Boeuf. "These outlaws have indeed
a daring captain; but without machines, scaling ladders, and experienced
leaders my castle may defy them."

"Send to thy neighbors," suggested the Templar. "Let them assemble their
people and come to the rescue of three knights, besieged by a jester and
swineherd in the baronial castle of Reginald Front-de-Boeuf!"

"You jest, sir knight," answered the baron; "but to whom shall I send?
My allies are at York, where I should have also been but for this
infernal enterprise."

"Then send to York and recall our people," said De Bracy. "If these
[v]churls abide the shaking of my standard, I will give them credit for
the boldest outlaws that ever bent bow in greenwood."

"And who shall bear such a message?" said Front-de-Boeuf. "The knaves
will beset every path and rip the errand out of the man's bosom. I have
it," he added, after pausing for a moment. "Sir Templar, thou canst
write as well as read, and if we can but find writing materials, thou
shalt return an answer to this bold challenge."

Paper and pen were presently brought, and Bois-Guilbert sat down and
wrote, in the French language, an epistle of the following tenor:

"Sir Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, with his noble and knightly allies and
confederates, receives no defiances at the hands of slaves, bondsmen, or
fugitives. If the person calling himself the Black Knight hath indeed a
claim to the honors of chivalry, he ought to know that he stands
degraded by his present association and has no right to ask reckoning at
the hands of good men of noble blood. Touching the prisoners we have
made, we do in Christian charity require you to send a man of religion
to receive their confession and reconcile th