his
squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is the base use of so many
false knights, to be shown only to maidens of high degree, for there
is no woman so humble that a true knight may not listen to her tale of
wrong. But here comes a cavalier who is indeed in haste. Perchance it
would be well that we should ask him whither he rides, for it may be
that he is one who desires to advance himself in chivalry."

The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of them into a
little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slope upon the other
side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far away between the black
lines of trunks the quick glitter of steel marked where the Company
pursued its way. To the north stretched the tree country, but to the
south, between two swelling downs, a glimpse might be caught of the cold
gray shimmer of the sea, with the white fleck of a galley sail upon the
distant sky-line. Just in front of the travellers a horseman was urging
his steed up the slope, driving it on with whip and spur as one who
rides for a set purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the
roan horse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it had
left many a mile behind it. The rider was a stern-faced man, hard of
mouth and dry of eye, with a heavy sword clanking at his side, and a
stiff white bundle swathed in linen balanced across the pommel of his
saddle.

"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them. "The messenger
of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's own man."

"Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining his horse half
round to bar the path. "I have myself been the king's man for thirty
years or more, but I have not been wont to halloo about it on a peaceful
highway."

"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that which
belongs to him. You bar my path at your peril."

"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his same," said
Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment of light. We must
have some sign or warrant of your mission."

"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with his shoulder
braced round and his hand upon his hilt. "I am not to be stopped on the
king's service by every gadabout."

"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor," lisped Sir
Nigel, "I shall be very blithe to go further into the matter with you.
If not, I have three very worthy squires, any one of whom would take the
t