and
slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone, unconscious to all
appearance of the universal panic, walked with unfaltering step up
the centre of the road, a silken handkerchief in one hand and his gold
comfit-box in the other. It sent the blood cold through Alleyne's veins
to see that as they came together--the man and the beast--the creature
reared up, with eyes ablaze with fear and hate, and whirled its great
paws above the knight to smite him to the earth. He, however, blinking
with puckered eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked the beast twice
across the snout with it. "Ah, saucy! saucy," quoth he, with gentle
chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and puzzled, dropped its four legs
to earth again, and, waddling back, was soon swathed in ropes by the
bear-ward and a crowd of peasants who had been in close pursuit.

A scared man was the keeper; for, having chained the brute to a stake
while he drank a stoup of ale at the inn, it had been baited by stray
curs, until, in wrath and madness, it had plucked loose the chain, and
smitten or bitten all who came in its path. Most scared of all was he
to find that the creature had come nigh to harm the Lord and Lady of the
castle, who had power to place him in the stretch-neck or to have the
skin scourged from his shoulders. Yet, when he came with bowed head
and humble entreaty for forgiveness, he was met with a handful of
small silver from Sir Nigel, whose dame, however, was less charitably
disposed, being much ruffled in her dignity by the manner in which she
had been hustled from her lord's side.

As they passed through the castle gate, John plucked at Aylward's
sleeve, and the two fell behind.

"I must crave your pardon, comrade," said he, bluntly. "I was a fool not
to know that a little rooster may be the gamest. I believe that this man
is indeed a leader whom we may follow."

CHAPTER XI. HOW A YOUNG SHEPHERD HAD A PERILOUS FLOCK.

Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches burning
at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over the outer
bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through the rough-hewn arch,
rising and falling with fitful brightness. Over the door the travellers
could discern the escutcheon of the Montacutes, a roebuck gules on a
field argent, flanked on either side by smaller shields which bore the
red roses of the veteran constable. As they passed over the drawbridge,
Alleyne marked the gleam of arms in th