interview with the king Cuthbert was led to his tent amid the
hearty plaudits of the English troops.

His own comrades flocked round him; the men of the greenwood, headed by
Cnut, were especially jubilant over his victory.

"Who would have thought," said the tall forester, "that the lad who but
a short time ago was a child should now have sustained the honor of the
country? We feel proud of you, Cuthbert; and trust us some day or other
to follow wherever you may lead, and to do some deed which will attain
for you honor and glory, and show that the men of Evesham are as doughty
as any under King Richard's rule."

"You must be wary, Cuthbert," the earl said to him that evening.
"Believe me that you and I have made a foe, who, although he may not
have the power, has certainly the will to injure us to the death. I
marked the eye of Count Jacquelin during the fight, and again when you
were led up to the king. There was hatred and fury in his eye. The page
too, I hear, is his own nephew, and he will be the laughing-stock of the
French camp at having been conquered by one so much younger than
himself. It will be well to keep upon your guard, and not to go out at
night unattended. Keep Cnut near you; he is faithful as a watch-dog, and
would give his life, I am sure, for you. I will myself be also upon my
guard, for it was after all my quarrel, and the fury of this fierce
knight will vent itself upon both of us if the opportunity should come.
I hear but a poor account of him among his confreres. They say he is one
of those disgraces to the name of knight who are but a mixture of robber
and soldier; that he harries all the lands in his neighborhood; and that
he has now only joined the Crusade to avoid the vengeance which the
cries of the oppressed people had invoked from his liege lord. I am told
indeed that the choice was given him to be outlawed, or to join the
Crusades with all the strength he could raise. Naturally he adopted the
latter alternative; but he has the instincts of the robber still, and
will do us an evil turn, if he have the chance."

Two days later the great army broke up its camp and marched south. After
a week's journeying they encamped near a town, and halted there two or
three days in order to collect provisions for the next advance; for the
supplies which they could obtain in the country districts were wholly
insufficient for so great a host of men. Here the armies were to
separate, the French marching t