d like to him in
all wise, but older; the others were of like fashion to him in the
high-seat. Shortly to say it, his sons they were, as David and the two
young men with him. The four women who sat with these men were all fair
and young, and one of them, she who drank out of the red-head's cup, so
fair, and with such a pleasant slim grace, that her like were not easy
to be found.

Again, to shorten the tale, there in the hall before Christopher, who
lay unwotting, were Jack of the Tofts and his seven sons, and the four
wives of four of the same, whom they had won from the Wailful Castle,
when they, with their father, put an end to the evil woman, and the
great she-tyrant of the Land betwixt the Wood and the River.

Now when David and his were come up to the dais, they stayed them,
and their father spake from his high-seat and said: "What is to do, ye
three? and what catch have ye?"

Said David: "I would fain hope 'tis the catch of a life that or I love;
for here is come thy guest of last Yule, even little Christopher, who
wrestled with thee and threw thee after thou hadst thrown all of us, and
he lying along and hurt, smitten down by a felon hard on our very doors.
What will ye do with him?"

"What," said Jack of the Tofts, "but tend him and heal him and cherish
him. And when he is well, then we shall see. But where is the felon who
smote him?"

Said David: "He fled away a-horseback ere we came to the field of deed,
and Anthony Green and Ralph Longshanks are gone after him, and belike,
will take him."

"Mayhappen not," said the master. "Now, forsooth, I have an inkling of
what this may mean; whereas there can be but one man whose business
may be the taking of our little guest's life. But let all be till he
be healed and may tell us his tale; and, if he telleth it as I deem
he will, then shall we seek further tidings. Meanwhile, if ye take the
felon, keep him heedfully till I may see him; for then may I have a true
tale out of him, even before Christopher is hale again."

So therewith David and Robert, with two or three others, brought
Christopher to a chamber, and did what leechdoms to him they might;
but Jack of the Tofts, and his sons and their fair wives, and his other
folk, made merry in the hall of the Tofts.

CHAPTER IX. SQUIRE SIMON COMES BACK TO OAKENHAM. THE EARL MARSHAL TAKEN
TO KING IN OAKENREALM.

Now as to Squire Simon, whether the devil helped him, or his luck, or
were it his own cunnin