see you a full knight ere you go to my
daughter with words of love. I have ever said that a brave lance should
wed her; and, by my soul! Edricson, if God spare you, I think that you
will acquit yourself well. But enough of such trifles, for we have our
work before us, and it will be time to speak of this matter when we see
the white cliffs of England once more. Go to Sir William Felton, I pray
you, and ask him to come hither, for it is time that we were marching.
There is no pass at the further end of the valley, and it is a perilous
place should an enemy come upon us."

Alleyne delivered his message, and then wandered forth from the camp,
for his mind was all in a whirl with this unexpected news, and with his
talk with Sir Nigel. Sitting upon a rock, with his burning brow resting
upon his hands, he thought of his brother, of their quarrel, of the Lady
Maude in her bedraggled riding-dress, of the gray old castle, of the
proud pale face in the armory, and of the last fiery words with which
she had sped him on his way. Then he was but a penniless, monk-bred lad,
unknown and unfriended. Now he was himself Socman of Minstead, the head
of an old stock, and the lord of an estate which, if reduced from its
former size, was still ample to preserve the dignity of his family.
Further, he had become a man of experience, was counted brave among
brave men, had won the esteem and confidence of her father, and, above
all, had been listened to by him when he told him the secret of his
love. As to the gaining of knighthood, in such stirring times it was no
great matter for a brave squire of gentle birth to aspire to that honor.
He would leave his bones among these Spanish ravines, or he would do
some deed which would call the eyes of men upon him.

Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys drifting
swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a sunlit meadow,
when of a sudden he became conscious of a low, deep sound which came
booming up to him through the fog. Close behind him he could hear the
murmur of the bowmen, the occasional bursts of hoarse laughter, and the
champing and stamping of their horses. Behind it all, however, came that
low-pitched, deep-toned hum, which seemed to come from every quarter and
to fill the whole air. In the old monastic days he remembered to
have heard such a sound when he had walked out one windy night at
Bucklershard, and had listened to the long waves breaking upon the
shi