FOR a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent browsand eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlakerode behind him in little better case, while Ford, a careless andlight-hearted youth, grinned at the melancholy of his companions,and flourished his lord's heavy spear, making a point to rightand a point to left, as though he were a paladin contendingagainst a host of assailants. Sir Nigel happened, however, toturn himself in his saddle-Ford instantly became as stiff and asrigid as though he had been struck with a palsy. The four rodealone, for the archers had passed a curve in the road, thoughAlleyne could still hear the heavy clump, clump of theirmarching, or catch a glimpse of the sparkle of steel through thetangle of leafless branches.

"Ride by my side, friends, I entreat of you," said the knight,reining in his steed that they might come abreast of him. "For,since it hath pleased you to follow me to the wars, it were wellthat you should know how you may best serve me. I doubt not,Terlake, that you will show yourself a worthy son of a valiantfather; and you, Ford, of yours; and you, Edricson, that you aremindful of the old-time house from which all men know that youare sprung. And first I would have you bear very steadfastly inmind that our setting forth is by no means for the purpose ofgaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen thatsuch may come to us also. We go to France, and from thence Itrust to Spain, in humble search of a field in which we may winadvancement and perchance some small share of glory. For thispurpose I would have you know that it is not my wont to let anyoccasion pass where it is in any way possible that honor may begained. I would have you bear this in mind, and give great heedto it that you may bring me word of all cartels, challenges,wrongs, tyrannies, infamies, and wronging of damsels. Nor is anyoccasion too small to take note of, for I have known such triflesas the dropping of a gauntlet, or the flicking of a breadcrumb,when well and properly followed up, lead to a most noble spear-running. But, Edricson, do I not see a cavalier who rides downyonder road amongst the nether shaw? It would be well,perchance, that you should give him greeting from me. And,should he be of gentle blood it may be that he would care toexchange thrusts with me."

"Why, my lord," quoth Ford, standing in his stirrups and shadinghis eyes, "it is old Hob Davidson, the fat miller of Milton!"

"Ah, so it is, indeed," said Sir Nigel, puckering his cheeks;"but wayside ventures are not to be scorned, for I have seen nofiner passages than are to be had from such chance meetings, whencavaliers are willing to advance themselves. I can well rememberthat two leagues from the town of Rheims I met a very valiant andcourteous cavalier of France, with whom I had gentle and mosthonorable contention for upwards of an hour. It hath evergrieved me that I had not his name, for he smote upon me with amace and went upon his way ere I was in condition to have muchspeech with him; but his arms were an allurion in chief above afess azure. I was also on such an occasion thrust through theshoulder by Lyon de Montcourt, whom I met on the high roadbetwixt Libourne and Bordeaux. I met him but the once, but Ihave never seen a man for whom I bear a greater love and esteem.And so also with the squire Le Bourg Capillet, who would havebeen a very valiant captain had he lived."

"He is dead then?" asked Alleyne Edricson.

"Alas! it was my ill fate to slay him in a bickering which brokeout in a field near the township of Tarbes. I cannot call tomind how the thing came about, for it was in the year of thePrince's ride through Langued'oc, when there was much fineskirmishing to be had at barriers. By St. Paul! I do not thinkthat any honorable cavalier could ask for better chance ofadvancement than might be had by spurring forth before the armyand riding to the gateways of Narbonne, or Bergerac or MontGiscar, where some courteous gentleman would ever be at wait todo what he might to meet your wish or ease you of your vow. Sucha one at Ventadour ran three courses with me betwixt daybreak andsunrise, to the great exaltation of his lady."

"And did you slay him also, my lord?" asked Ford with reverence.

"I could never learn, for he was carried within the barrier, andas I had chanced to break the bone of my leg it was a greatunease for me to ride or even to stand. Yet, by the goodness ofheaven and the pious intercession of the valiant St. George, Iwas able to sit my charger in the ruffle of Poictiers, which wasno very long time afterwards. But what have we here? A veryfair and courtly maiden, or I mistake."

It was indeed a tall and buxom country lass, with a basket ofspinach-leaves upon her head, and a great slab of bacon tuckedunder one arm. She bobbed a frightened curtsey as Sir Nigelswept his velvet hat from his head and reined up his greatcharger.

"God be with thee, fair maiden!" said he.

"God guard thee, my lord!" she answered, speaking in the broadestWest Saxon speech, and balancing herself first on one foot andthen on the other in her bashfulness.

"Fear not, my fair damsel," said Sir Nigel, "but tell me ifperchance a poor and most unworthy knight can in any wise be ofservice to you. Should it chance that you have been useddespitefully, it may be that I may obtain justice for you."

"Lawk no, kind sir," she answered, clutching her bacon thetighter, as though some design upon it might be hid under thisknightly offer. "I be the milking wench o' fairmer Arnold, andhe be as kind a maister as heart could wish."

"It is well," said he, and with a shake of the bridle rode ondown the woodland path. "I would have you bear in mind," hecontinued to his squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is thebase use of so many false knights, to be shown only to maidens ofhigh degree, for there is no woman so humble that a true knightmay not listen to her tale of wrong. But here comes a cavalierwho is indeed in haste. Perchance it would be well that weshould ask him whither he rides, for it may be that he is one whodesires to advance himself in chivalry."

The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of theminto a little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slope uponthe other side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far awaybetween the black lines of trunks the quick glitter of steelmarked where the Company pursued its way. To the north stretchedthe tree country, but to the south, between two swelling downs, aglimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer of the sea, withthe white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant sky-line. Justin front of the travellers a horseman was urging his steed up theslope, driving it on with whip and spur as one who rides for aset purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the roanhorse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it hadleft many a mile behind it. The rider was a stern-faced man,hard of mouth and dry of eye, with a heavy sword clanking at hisside, and a stiff white bundle swathed in linen balanced acrossthe pommel of his saddle.

"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them. "Themessenger of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's ownman."

"Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining hishorse half round to bar the path. "I have myself been the king'sman for thirty years or more, but I have not been wont to hallooabout it on a peaceful highway."

"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that whichbelongs to him. You bar my path at your peril."

"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his same,"said Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment oflight. We must have some sign or warrant of your mission."

"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with hisshoulder braced round and his hand upon his hilt. "I am not tobe stopped on the king's service by every gadabout."

"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor," lispedSir Nigel, "I shall be very blithe to go further into the matterwith you. If not, I have three very worthy squires, any one ofwhom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it with you ina very honorable way."

The man scowled from one to the other, and his hand stole awayfrom his sword.

"You ask me for a sign," he said. "Here is a sign for you, sinceyou must have one." As he spoke he whirled the covering from theobject in front of him and showed to their horror that it was anewly-severed human leg. "By God's tooth!" he continued, with abrutal laugh, "you ask me if I am a man of quarterings, and it iseven so, for I am officer to the verderer's court at Lyndhurst.This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the other is alreadyat Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what comes of beingover-fond of venison pasty."

"Faugh!" cried Sir Nigel. "Pass on the other side of the road,fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot ourhorses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by OurLady! a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such asight."

"We hoped to snare a falcon," said he presently, "but we netted acarrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts are tougherthan a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old game of warsince ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen ten thousandbrave men in one day with their faces to the sky, but I swear byHim who made me that I cannot abide the work of the butcher."

"And yet, my fair lord," said Edricson, "there has, from what Ihear, been much of such devil's work in France."

"Too much, too much," he answered. "But I have ever observedthat the foremost in the field are they who would scorn tomishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul! it is not they who carry thebreach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves whocome crowding in when a way has been cleared for them. But whatis this among the trees?"

"It is a shrine of Our Lady," said Terlake, "and a blind beggarwho lives by the alms of those who worship there."

"A shrine!" cried the knight. "Then let us put up an orison."Pulling off his cap, and clasping his hands, he chanted in ashrill voice: "Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet manusmeas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum." A strange figurehe seemed to his three squires, perched on his huge horse, withhis eyes upturned and the wintry sun shimmering upon his baldhead. "It is a noble prayer," he remarked, putting on his hatagain, "and it was taught to me by the noble Chandos himself.But how fares it with you, father? Methinks that I should haveruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks througha horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal. Yet,by St. Paul! there is a long stride between the man who hath ahorn casement and him who is walled in on every hand."

"Alas! fair sir," cried the blind old man, "I have not seen theblessed blue of heaven this two-score years, since a levin flashburned the sight out of my head."

"You have been blind to much that is goodly and fair," quoth SirNigel, "but you have also been spared much that is sorry andfoul. This very hour our eyes have been shocked with that whichwould have left you unmoved. But, by St. Paul! we must on, orour Company will think that they have lost their captain somewhatearly in the venture. Throw the man my purse, Edricson, and letus go."

Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring'scounsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had sofreely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with manymumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet. Then, spurringhis steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed afterhis companions, and overtook them just at the spot where thetrees fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet ofHordle lies scattered on either side of the winding and deeply-rutted track. The Company was already well-nigh through thevillage; but, as the knight and his squires closed up upon them,they heard the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a roar ofdeep-chested laughter from the ranks of the archers. Anotherminute brought them up with the rear-guard, where every manmarched with his beard on his shoulder and a face which was a-grin with merriment. By the side of the column walked a hugered-headed bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument andexpostulation, while close at his heels followed a littlewrinkled woman who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, variedby an occasional thwack from her stick, given with all the forceof her body, though she might have been beating one of theforest trees for all the effect that she seemed likely toproduce.

"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel gravely, as he rode up, "thatthis doth not mean that any violence hath been offered to women.If such a thing happened, I tell you that the man shall hang,though he were the best archer that ever wore brassart."

"Nay, my fair lord," Aylward answered with a grin, "it isviolence which is offered to a man. He comes from Hordle, andthis is his mother who hath come forth to welcome him."

"You rammucky lurden," she was howling, with a blow between eachcatch of her breath, "you shammocking, yaping, over-long good-for-nought. I will teach thee! I will baste thee! Aye, by myfaith!"

"Whist, mother," said John, looking back at her from the tail ofhis eye, "I go to France as an archer to give blows and to takethem."

"To France, quotha?" cried the old dame. "Bide here with me, andI shall warrant you more blows than you are like to get inFrance. If blows be what you seek, you need not go further thanHordle."

"By my hilt! the good dame speaks truth," said Aylward. "Itseems to be the very home of them."

"What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar?" cried thefiery dame, turning upon the archer. "Can I not speak with myown son but you must let your tongue clack? A soldier, quotha,and never a hair on his face. I have seen a better soldier withpap for food and swaddling clothes for harness."

"Stand to it, Aylward," cried the archers, amid a fresh burst oflaughter.

"Do not thwart her, comrade," said big John. "She hath a properspirit for her years and cannot abide to be thwarted. It iskindly and homely to me to hear her voice and to feel that she isbehind me. But I must leave you now, mother, for the way isover-rough for your feet; but I will bring you back a silkengown, if there be one in France or Spain, and I will bring Jinnya silver penny; so good-bye to you, and God have you in Hiskeeping!" Whipping up the little woman, he lifted her lightly tohis lips, and then, taking his place in the ranks again, marchedon with the laughing Company.

"That was ever his way," she cried, appealing to Sir Nigel, whoreined up his horse and listened with the greatest courtesy. "Hewould jog on his own road for all that I could do to change him.First he must be a monk forsooth, and all because a wench waswise enough to turn her back on him. Then he joins a rascallycrew and must needs trapse off to the wars, and me with no one tobait the fire if I be out, or tend the cow if I be home. Yet Ihave been a good mother to him. Three hazel switches a day haveI broke across his shoulders, and he takes no more notice thanyou have seen him to-day."

"Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe andprosperous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. "Meanwhile itgrieves me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar upthe road I----"

"Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, "I still have some moneysremaining."

"Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman." Hecantered on as he spoke, while Alleyne, having dispensed two morepence, left the old dame standing by the furthest cottage ofHordle, with her shrill voice raised in blessings instead ofrevilings.

There were two cross-roads before they reached the LymingtonFord, and at each of then Sir Nigel pulled up his horse, andwaited with many a curvet and gambade, craning his neck this wayand that to see if fortune would send him a venture. Crossroadshad, as he explained, been rare places for knightly spear-runnings, and in his youth it was no uncommon thing for acavalier to abide for weeks at such a point, holding gentledebate with all comers, to his own advancement and the greathonor of his lady. The times were changed, however, and theforest tracks wound away from them deserted and silent, with notrample of war-horse or clang of armor which might herald theapproach of an adversary--so that Sir Nigel rode on his waydisconsolate. At the Lymington River they splashed through theford, and lay in the meadows on the further side to eat the breadand salt meat which they carried upon the sumpter horses. Then,ere the sun was on the slope of the heavens, they had deftlytrussed up again, and were swinging merrily upon their way, twohundred feet moving like two.

There is a third cross-road where the track from Boldre runs downto the old fishing village of Pitt's Deep. Down this, as theycame abreast of it, there walked two men, the one a pace or twobehind the other. The cavaliers could not but pull up theirhorses to look at them, for a stranger pair were never seenjourneying together. The first was a misshapen, squalid man withcruel, cunning eyes and a shock of tangled red hair, bearing inhis hands a small unpainted cross, which he held high so that allmen might see it. He seemed to be in the last extremity offright, with a face the color of clay and his limbs all ashake asone who hath an ague. Behind him, with his toe ever rasping uponthe other's heels, there walked a very stern, black-bearded manwith a hard eye and a set mouth. He bore over his shoulder agreat knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head ofit, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with aquivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dashinghis companion's brains out. So in silence they walked under thespread of the branches on the grass-grown path from Boldre.

"By St. Paul!" quoth the knight, "but this is a passing strangesight, and perchance some very perilous and honorable venture mayarise from it. I pray you, Edricson, to ride up to them and toask them the cause of it."

There was no need, however, for him to move, for the twain cameswiftly towards them until they were within a spear's length,when the man with the cross sat himself down sullenly upon atussock of grass by the wayside, while the other stood beside himwith his great cudgel still hanging over his head. So intent washe that he raised his eyes neither to knight nor squires, butkept them ever fixed with a savage glare upon his comrade.

"I pray you, friend," said Sir Nigel, "to tell us truthfully whoyou are, and why you follow this man with such bitter enmity?

"So long as I am within the pale of the king's law," the strangeranswered, "I cannot see why I should render account to everypassing wayfarer."

"You are no very shrewd reasoner, fellow," quoth the knight; "forif it be within the law for you to threaten him with your club,then it is also lawful for me to threaten you with my sword."

The man with the cross was down in an instant on his knees uponthe ground, with hands clasped above him and his face shiningwith hope. "For dear Christ's sake, my fair lord," he cried in acrackling voice, "I have at my belt a bag with a hundred rosenobles, and I will give it to you freely if you will but passyour sword through this man's body."

"How, you foul knave?" exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly. "Do you thinkthat a cavalier's arm is to be bought like a packman's ware. BySt. Paul! I have little doubt that this fellow hath some verygood cause to hold you in hatred."

"Indeed, my fair sir, you speak sooth," quoth he with the club,while the other seated himself once more by the wayside. "Forthis man is Peter Peterson, a very noted rieve, draw-latch, andmurtherer, who has wrought much evil for many years in the partsabout Winchester. It was but the other day, upon the feasts ofthe blessed Simon and Jude, that he slew my younger brotherWilliam in Bere Forest--for which, by the black thorn ofGlastonbury! I shall have his heart's blood, though I walk behindhim to the further end of earth."

"But if this be indeed so," asked Sir Nigel, "why is it that youhave come with him so far through the forest?"

"Because I am an honest Englishman, and will take no more thanthe law allows. For when the deed was done this foul and basewretch fled to sanctuary at St. Cross, and I, as you may think,after him with all the posse. The prior, however, hath soordered that while he holds this cross no man may lay hand uponhim without the ban of church, which heaven forfend from me ormine. Yet, if for an instant he lay the cross aside, or if hefail to journey to Pitt's Deep, where it is ordered that he shalltake ship to outland parts, or if he take not the first ship, orif until the ship be ready he walk not every day into the sea asfar as his loins, then he becomes outlaw, and I shall forthwithdash out his brains."

At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat, whilethe other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and looked downat him with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire gazed fromrogue to avenger, but as it was a matter which none could mendthey tarried no longer, but rode upon their way. Alleyne,looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread and cheesefrom his scrip, and was silently munching it, with the protectingcross still hugged to his breast, while the other, black andgrim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow athwarthim.