and the red cows stood in the
long shadow of the elms, chewing the cud and gazing with great vacant
eyes at two horsemen who were spurring it down the long white road which
dipped and curved away back to where the towers and pinnacles beneath
the flat-topped hill marked the old town of Winchester.

Of the riders one was young, graceful, and fair, clad in plain doublet
and hosen of blue Brussels cloth, which served to show his active and
well-knit figure. A flat velvet cap was drawn forward to keep the glare
from his eyes, and he rode with lips compressed and anxious face, as one
who has much care upon his mind. Young as he was, and peaceful as
was his dress, the dainty golden spurs which twinkled upon his heels
proclaimed his knighthood, while a long seam upon his brow and a
scar upon his temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate
countenance. His comrade was a large, red-headed man upon a great black
horse, with a huge canvas bag slung from his saddle-bow, which jingled
and clinked with every movement of his steed. His broad, brown face was
lighted up by a continual smile, and he looked slowly from side to
side with eyes which twinkled and shone with delight. Well might John
rejoice, for was he not back in his native Hampshire, had he not Don
Diego's five thousand crowns rasping against his knee, and above all was
he not himself squire now to Sir Alleyne Edricson, the young Socman of
Minstead lately knighted by the sword of the Black Prince himself, and
esteemed by the whole army as one of the most rising of the soldiers of
England.

For the last stand of the Company had been told throughout Christendom
wherever a brave deed of arms was loved, and honors had flowed in upon
the few who had survived it. For two months Alleyne had wavered betwixt
death and life, with a broken rib and a shattered head; yet youth and
strength and a cleanly life were all upon his side, and he awoke from
his long delirium to find that the war was over, that the Spaniards
and their allies had been crushed at Navaretta, and that the prince had
himself heard the tale of his ride for succor and had come in person to
his bedside to touch his shoulder with his sword and to insure that so
brave and true a man should die, if he could not live, within the order
of chivalry. The instant that he could set foot to ground Alleyne had
started in search of his lord, but no word could he hear of him, dead
or alive, and he had come home now sad-he