ter, and the sooner the better, say I. Although I am no
man of war, and love looking after my falcons or giving food to my dogs
far more than exchanging hard blows, yet would I gladly don the buff and
steel coat to aid in leveling the keep of that robber and tyrant, Sir
John of Wortham."

"Thanks, good Hubert," said the lad. "I must not stand gossiping here.
The news you have told me, as you know, touches me closely, for I would
not that harm should come to the forest men."

"Let it not out, I beseech thee, Cuthbert, that the news came from me,
for temperate as Sir Walter is at most times, he would, methinks, give
me short shift did he know that the wagging of my tongue might have
given warning through which the outlaws of the Chase should slip through
his fingers."

"Fear not, Hubert; I can be mum when the occasion needs. Can you tell
me further, when the bands now gathering are likely to set forth?"

"In brief breathing space," the falconer replied. "Those who first
arrived I left swilling beer, and devouring pies and other provisions
cooked for them last night, and from what I hear, they will set forth as
soon as the last comer has arrived. Whichever be their quarry, they will
try to fall upon it before the news of their arrival is bruited abroad."

With a wave of his hand to the falconer the boy started. Leaving the
road, and striking across the slightly undulated country dotted here and
there by groups of trees, the lad ran at a brisk trot, without stopping
to halt or breathe, until after half an hour's run he arrived at the
entrance of a building, whose aspect proclaimed it to be the abode of a
Saxon franklin of some importance. It would not be called a castle, but
was rather a fortified house, with a few windows looking without, and
surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge, and capable of sustaining
anything short of a real attack. Erstwood had but lately passed into
Norman hands, and was indeed at present owned by a Saxon. Sir William de
Lance, the father of the lad who is now entering its portals, was a
friend and follower of the Earl of Evesham; and soon after his lord had
married Gweneth, the heiress of all these fair lands--given to him by
the will of the king, to whom by the death of her father she became a
ward--Sir William had married Editha, the daughter and heiress of the
franklin of Erstwood, a cousin and dear friend of the new Countess of
Evesham.

In neither couple could the marriage at fir