could see--that our day was done. I was a cripple and he a
one-armed man. No!' He shook his head. 'And therefore'--he raised his
voice--'we rode back to Pevensey.'

'I'm sorry,' said Una, for the knight seemed very sorrowful.

'Little maid, it all passed long ago. They were young; we were old. We let
them rule the Manors. "Aha!" cried De Aquila from his shot-window, when we
dismounted. "Back again to earth, old foxes?" but when we were in his
chamber above the hall he puts his arms about us and says, "Welcome,
ghosts! Welcome, poor ghosts!"... Thus it fell out that we were rich
beyond belief, and lonely. And lonely!'

'What did you do?' said Dan.

'We watched for Robert of Normandy,' said the knight. 'De Aquila was like
Witta. He suffered no idleness. In fair weather we would ride along
between Bexlei on the one side, to Cuckmere on the other--sometimes with
hawk, sometimes with hound (there are stout hares both on the Marsh and
the Downland), but always with an eye to the sea, for fear of fleets from
Normandy. In foul weather he would walk on the top of his tower, frowning
against the rain--peering here and pointing there. It always vexed him to
think how Witta's ship had come and gone without his knowledge. When the
wind ceased and ships anchored, to the wharf's edge he would go and,
leaning on his sword among the stinking fish, would call to the mariners
for their news from France. His other eye he kept landward for word of
Henry's war against the Barons.

'Many brought him news--jongleurs, harpers, pedlars, sutlers, priests, and
the like; and, though he was secret enough in small things, yet, if their
news misliked him, then, regarding neither time nor place nor people,
would he curse our King Henry for a fool or a babe. I have heard him cry
aloud by the fishing-boats: "If I were King of England I would do thus and
thus"; and when I rode out to see that the warning-beacons were laid and
dry, he hath often called to me from the shot-window: "Look to it,
Richard! Do not copy our blind King, but see with thine own eyes and feel
with thine own hands." I do not think he knew any sort of fear. And so we
lived at Pevensey, in the little chamber above the Hall.

'One foul night came word that a messenger of the King waited below. We
were chilled after a long riding in the fog towards Bexlei, which is an
easy place for ships to land. De Aquila sent word the man might either eat
with us or wait till we had fed. Anon Jeha