with some confusion of manner that Dick arose from the cross and stepped
down the bank to meet his prisoner.

"I thank you, my lord, for your exactitude," he said, louting very low.
"Will it please your lordship to set foot to earth?"

"Are ye here alone, young man?" inquired the other.

"I was not so simple," answered Dick; "and, to be plain with your
lordship, the woods upon either hand of this cross lie full of mine
honest fellows lying on their weapons."

"Y' 'ave done wisely," said the lord. "It pleaseth me the rather, since
last night ye fought foolhardily, and more like a salvage Saracen lunatic
than any Christian warrior. But it becomes not me to complain that had
the undermost."

"Ye had the undermost indeed, my lord, since ye so fell," returned Dick;
"but had the waves not holpen me, it was I that should have had the
worst. Ye were pleased to make me yours with several dagger marks, which
I still carry. And in fine, my lord, methinks I had all the danger, as
well as all the profit, of that little blind-man's mellay on the beach."

"Y' are shrewd enough to make light of it, I see," returned the stranger.

"Nay, my lord, not shrewd," replied Dick, "in that I shoot at no
advantage to myself. But when, by the light of this new day, I see how
stout a knight hath yielded, not to my arms alone, but to fortune, and
the darkness, and the surf--and how easily the battle had gone otherwise,
with a soldier so untried and rustic as myself--think it not strange, my
lord, if I feel confounded with my victory."

"Ye speak well," said the stranger. "Your name?"

"My name, an't like you, is Shelton," answered Dick.

"Men call me the Lord Foxham," added the other.

"Then, my lord, and under your good favour, ye are guardian to the
sweetest maid in England," replied Dick; "and for your ransom, and the
ransom of such as were taken with you on the beach, there will be no
uncertainty of terms. I pray you, my lord, of your goodwill and charity,
yield me the hand of my mistress, Joan Sedley; and take ye, upon the
other part, your liberty, the liberty of these your followers, and (if ye
will have it) my gratitude and service till I die."

"But are ye not ward to Sir Daniel? Methought, if y' are Harry Shelton's
son, that I had heard it so reported," said Lord Foxham.

"Will it please you, my lord, to alight? I would fain tell you fully who
I am, how situate, and why so bold in my demands. Beseech you, my lord,