s length upon the green sward.

"Well and yeomanly done!" shouted the robbers; "fair play and Old
England for ever! The Saxon hath saved both his purse and his hide, and
the Miller has met his match."

"Thou mayst go thy ways, my friend," said the Captain, addressing Gurth,
in special confirmation of the general voice, "and I will cause two of
my comrades to guide thee by the best way to thy master's pavilion, and
to guard thee from night-walkers that might have less tender consciences
than ours; for there is many one of them upon the amble in such a night
as this. Take heed, however," he added sternly; "remember thou hast
refused to tell thy name--ask not after ours, nor endeavour to discover
who or what we are; for, if thou makest such an attempt, thou wilt come
by worse fortune than has yet befallen thee."

Gurth thanked the Captain for his courtesy, and promised to attend to
his recommendation. Two of the outlaws, taking up their quarter-staves,
and desiring Gurth to follow close in the rear, walked roundly forward
along a by-path, which traversed the thicket and the broken ground
adjacent to it. On the very verge of the thicket two men spoke to his
conductors, and receiving an answer in a whisper, withdrew into the
wood, and suffered them to pass unmolested. This circumstance induced
Gurth to believe both that the gang was strong in numbers, and that they
kept regular guards around their place of rendezvous.

When they arrived on the open heath, where Gurth might have had some
trouble in finding his road, the thieves guided him straight forward to
the top of a little eminence, whence he could see, spread beneath him
in the moonlight, the palisades of the lists, the glimmering pavilions
pitched at either end, with the pennons which adorned them fluttering
in the moonbeams, and from which could be heard the hum of the song with
which the sentinels were beguiling their night-watch.

Here the thieves stopt.

"We go with you no farther," said they; "it were not safe that we should
do so.--Remember the warning you have received--keep secret what has
this night befallen you, and you will have no room to repent it--neglect
what is now told you, and the Tower of London shall not protect you
against our revenge."

"Good night to you, kind sirs," said Gurth; "I shall remember your
orders, and trust that there is no offence in wishing you a safer and an
honester trade."

Thus they parted, the outlaws returning in the