or Saxon, who
stole as much as one egg from our valley. Said he to me, riding home:
"Thou hast gone far to conquer England this evening." I answered: "England
must be thine and mine, then. Help me, Hugh, to deal aright with this
people. Make them to know that if they slay me De Aquila will surely send
to slay them, and he will put a worse man in my place." "That may well be
true," said he, and gave me his hand. "Better the devil we know than the
devil we know not, till we can pack you Normans home." And so, too, said
his Saxons; and they laughed as we drove the pigs downhill. But I think
some of them, even then, began not to hate me.'

'I like Brother Hugh,' said Una, softly.

'Beyond question he was the most perfect, courteous, valiant, tender, and
wise knight that ever drew breath,' said Richard, caressing the sword. 'He
hung up his sword--this sword--on the wall of the Great Hall, because he
said it was fairly mine, and never he took it down till De Aquila
returned, as I shall presently show. For three months his men and mine
guarded the valley, till all robbers and nightwalkers learned there was
nothing to get from us save hard tack and a hanging. Side by side we
fought against all who came--thrice a week sometimes we fought--against
thieves and landless knights looking for good manors. Then we were in some
peace, and I made shift by Hugh's help to govern the valley--for all this
valley of yours was my Manor--as a knight should. I kept the roof on the
hall and the thatch on the barn, but.... The English are a bold people.
His Saxons would laugh and jest with Hugh, and Hugh with them, and--this
was marvellous to me--if even the meanest of them said that such and such a
thing was the Custom of the Manor, then straightway would Hugh and such
old men of the Manor as might be near forsake everything else to debate
the matter--I have seen them stop the mill with the corn half ground--and if
the custom or usage were proven to be as it was said, why, that was the
end of it, even though it were flat against Hugh, his wish and command.
Wonderful!'

'Aye,' said Puck, breaking in for the first time. 'The Custom of Old
England was here before your Norman knights came, and it outlasted them,
though they fought against it cruel.'

'Not I,' said Richard. 'I let the Saxons go their stubborn way, but when
my own men-at-arms, Normans not six months in England, stood up and told
me what was the custom of the country, _then_ I was an