erk from Milan.'

"'Nay, Allen,' interrupted one of the party, addressing him who seemed
to be their leader; 'this is a lad of mettle, and such a one as our
honest Jack longs for. But we lure not hawks with empty hands. Look ye,
sir, there is game afoot which it may need such bold hunters as thyself
to follow. Come with us and take a firkin of canary, and we will find
better work for that glaive of thine than getting its owner into broil
and bloodshed; for, by my troth! Milan or no Milan, if my curtel axe
do but ring against that morion of thine it will be an ill day for thy
father's son.'

"For a moment our hero hesitated as to whether it would best become his
knightly traditions to hurl himself against his enemies, or whether it
might not be better to obey their requests. Prudence, mingled with a
large share of curiosity, eventually carried the day, and dismounting
from his horse, he intimated that he was ready to follow his captors.

"'Spoken like a man!' cried he whom they addressed as Allen. 'Jack Cade
will be right glad of such a recruit. Blood and carrion! but thou hast
the thews of a young ox; and I swear, by the haft of my sword, that it
might have gone ill with some of us hadst thou not listened to reason!'

"'Nay, not so, good Allen--not so,' squeaked a very small man, who had
remained in the background while there was any prospect of a fray,
but who now came pushing to the front. 'Hadst thou been alone it might
indeed have been so, perchance, but an expert swordsman can disarm
at pleasure such a one as this young knight. Well I remember in the
Palatinate how I clove to the chine even such another--the Baron von
Slogstaff. He struck at me, look ye, so; but I, with buckler and blade,
did, as one might say, deflect it; and then, countering in carte, I
returned in tierce, and so--St. Agnes save us! who comes here?'

"The apparition which frightened the loquacious little man was
sufficiently strange to cause a qualm even in the bosom of the knight.
Through the darkness there loomed a figure which appeared to be of
gigantic size, and a hoarse voice, issuing apparently some distance
above the heads of the party, broke roughly on the silence of the night.

"'Now out upon thee, Thomas Allen, and foul be thy fate if thou hast
abandoned thy post without good and sufficient cause. By St. Anselm
of the Holy Grove, thou hadst best have never been born than rouse
my spleen this night. Wherefore is it that you and your