t thou mayst in the matter."

Herewith must Osberne be content perforce, and in sooth his heart was
the lighter that he had told his trouble to so good a friend as was
Sir Godrick.

Chapter XLIV. They Reach Longshaw and Osberne Gets Him a New Name

But the seven days over, they departed on their ways to the house of
Longshaw, which well they knew; and they rode first for two days
through rough land pretty much as it had been before Woodneb, and they
saw all that way but three little houses of hunters or fowlers; and
this, they told Osberne, right on from Woodneb was the beginning of
the Wood Masterless. Thereafter they came amongst great timber-trees
with wood lawns betwixt, and but little underwood, and a goodly piece
of the world that seemed unto Osberne. Three days it held so, and then
came broken ground, whiles with much tangled thicket and whiles
treeless, and this was a two days' ride; and many were the wild deer
therein, so that their cheer was greatly amended. Thereafter was the
wood thinner and more plain, and there was a clear road through it;
and on the first day of their riding this way they came upon a sort of
folk who were sitting on the greensward eating their dinner. They were
fifteen all told, all of them with weapons, but Sir Godrick and his
came upon them so suddenly that they had no time to rise and flee, so
sat still abiding haps. They had a good few of sumpter-horses with
them, and it as soon clear to see that, though they were weaponed,
they were not men-at-arms, but chapmen. Sir Godrick entreated them
courteously, and asked them whence and whither, and prayed them of
tidings. They said they were come from the City of the Sundering
Flood, and had ridden the Wood instead of taking ship on the river,
which was far safer, because they were bound for some of the cheaping
towns to which Sir Godrick and his had given the go-by. They said that
all was at peace in the City and the Frank thereof, and there was
little of strife anywhere anigh. In the end they bade the Knight and
his men sit with them and share their feast under the green-wood tree.
Sir Godrick yeasaid that with a good will, and they were presently all
very merry. Sooth to say, though they made as if they knew him not,
and never named his name, they knew him well enough, and were a little
afeard of him, and only too well content if he named himself not, for
they were of the gilds who were scarce good friends with Longshaw: so
that it