elf comfortably down upon a chair. "I think it was a robbery,
eh?"

"Yes," slowly replied the maiden, "I should think so, too. Meg and I
paid him six nobles."

"And only two were found."

"Only two?" asked Dorothy.

"That is all," replied the knight. "The knaves must have made off with
the rest. That ill-favoured locksmith would be as likely a rascal as
any; I must examine him."

"Nay, that cannot be, he was all day in the stocks."

Sir George scratched his head in despair. He had privately determined
that the locksmith was the guilty one, but now that his idea was
entirely disproved he felt sorely at a loss how to proceed.

Dorothy watched him in silence; she was as helpless as the baron.

"Was the packman staying in the village?" asked Sir George, lifting up
his head after a long pause, during which he had kept his glance upon
his foot, as if seeking inspiration there.

"He stayed at Dame Durden's, I believe."

"What, the witch?"

"Yes."

"I have it, then," he exclaimed as he struck his hand heavily upon the
table. "I have it!" and without saying another word he hastened out of
the room.

Although the knight had thus decisively declared that he "had it," yet
whatever it was that he had got, he did not feel equal to proceeding
in the matter alone, and before he had proceeded many steps he turned
back again.

"Come, Doll," he said, as he opened the door again, "we will go
together," and the two went off in company to consult the rest of the
family.

The Lady Maude was seated in a low, easy chair, And with an air of
languor upon every feature of her countenance was listening to Sir
John de Lacey, who was reading to her out of Roger Ascham's treatise
on Archery. As the knight stepped into the room the remembrance of the
previous day's mishap was strongly brought back to his memory.

"What ho! sir knight," he exclaimed; "better, eh!"

"A little stiff about the joints, mine host," he replied, "for which I
have thee to thank."

"Tush, man, don't mention it," laughingly returned the baron. "There's
no question of thanks betwixt me and thee."

"They gave me some hot sack, and then rolled me in the river," whined
De Lacey, "and the pity of it is I cannot remember which of them it
was, or else I'd--I'd--"

Sir John de Lacey paused to consider what course of action he would
have taken, but ere he had resolved, the door opened, and Sir Thomas
Stanley entered, bringing in with him the Lady Margaret.

"