you say in a month's time,' replied the knight,
lightly: then dreaming over the words.

A few days more, and they were riding among the lovely rock and woodland
scenery of Yorkshire, when suddenly there leaped from behind a bush three
or four young men, with a loud shout of 'Stand.'

'Reivers!' thought Malcolm, sick with dismay, as the foremost grasped Sir
James's bridle; but the latter merely laughed, saying, 'How now, Hal! be
these your old tricks?'

'Ay, when such prizes are errant,' said the assailant and Sir James,
springing from his horse, embraced him and his companion with a
cordiality that made Malcolm not a little uneasy. Could he have been
kidnapped by a false Englishman into a den of robbers for the sake of his
ransom?

'You are strict to your time,' said the chief robber. 'I knew you would
be. So, when Ned Marmion came to Beverley, and would have us to see his
hunting at Tanfield, we came on thinking to meet you. Marmion here has a
nooning spread in the forest; ere we go on to Thirsk, where I have a
matter to settle between two wrong-headed churls. How has it been with
you, Jamie? you have added to your meine.'

'Ah, Hal! never in all your cut-purse days did you fall on such an
emprise as I have achieved.'

'Let us hear,' said Hal, linking his arm in Sir James's, who turned for a
moment to say, 'Take care of the lad, John; he is a young kinsman of
mine.'

'Kinsman!' thought Malcolm; 'do all wandering Stewarts claim kin to the
blood royal?' but then, as he looked at Sir James's stately head, he felt
that no assumption could be unbecoming in one of such a presence, and so
kind to himself; and, ashamed of the moment's petulance, dismounted, and,
as John said, 'This is the way to our noon meat,' he let himself be
conducted through the trees to a glade, sheltered from the wind, where a
Lenten though not unsavoury meal of bread, dried fish, and eggs was laid
out on the grass, in a bright warm sunshine; and Hal, declaring himself
to have a hunter's appetite, and that he knew Jamie had been starved in
Scotland, and was as lean as a greyhound, seated himself on the grass,
and to Malcolm's extreme surprise, not to say disgust, was served by Lord
Marmion on the knee and with doffed cap.

While the meal was being eaten, Malcolm studied the strangers. Lord
Marmion was a good-humoured, hearty-looking young Yorkshireman, but the
other two attracted his attention far more. They were evidently
brothers, one