ndly in its mistress's defence. Bird and
maid, however, had but little chance against their assailant who,
laughing loudly, caught her wrist in one hand while he drew her towards
him with the other.

"The best rose has ever the longest thorns," said he. "Quiet, little
one, or you may do yourself a hurt. Must pay Saxon toll on Saxon land,
my proud Maude, for all your airs and graces."

"You boor!" she hissed. "You base underbred clod! Is this your care and
your hospitality? I would rather wed a branded serf from my father's
fields. Leave go, I say----Ah! good youth, Heaven has sent you. Make him
loose me! By the honor of your mother, I pray you to stand by me and to
make this knave loose me."

"Stand by you I will, and that blithely." said Alleyne. "Surely, sir,
you should take shame to hold the damsel against her will."

The man turned a face upon him which was lion-like in its strength and
in its wrath. With his tangle of golden hair, his fierce blue eyes, and
his large, well-marked features, he was the most comely man whom Alleyne
had ever seen, and yet there was something so sinister and so fell in
his expression that child or beast might well have shrunk from him. His
brows were drawn, his cheek flushed, and there was a mad sparkle in his
eyes which spoke of a wild, untamable nature.

"Young fool!" he cried, holding the woman still to his side, though
every line of her shrinking figure spoke her abhorrence. "Do you keep
your spoon in your own broth. I rede you to go on your way, lest worse
befall you. This little wench has come with me and with me she shall
bide."

"Liar!" cried the woman; and, stooping her head, she suddenly bit
fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her. He whipped it back
with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind Alleyne,
cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who sees the falcon
poising for the swoop above him.

"Stand off my land!" the man said fiercely, heedless of the blood which
trickled freely from his fingers. "What have you to do here? By your
dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who overrun the land like
vile rats, poking and prying into other men's concerns, too caitiff to
fight and too lazy to work. By the rood! if I had my will upon ye, I
should nail you upon the abbey doors, as they hang vermin before their
holes. Art neither man nor woman, young shaveling. Get thee back to thy
fellows ere I lay hands upon you: for your foot is