halt hold the Manor from me; for the
Duke has promised our Earl Mortain all the lands by Pevensey, and
Mortain will give me of them what he would have given my father. God
knows if thou or I shall live till England is won; but remember, boy,
that here and now fighting is foolishness and"--he reached for the
reins--"craft and cunning is all."

"'Alas, I have no cunning," said I.

"'Not yet," said he, hopping abroad, foot in stirrup, and poking his
horse in the belly with his toe. "Not yet, but I think thou hast a
good teacher. Farewell! Hold the Manor and live. Lose the Manor and
hang," he said, and spurred out, his shield-straps squeaking behind him.

'So, children, here was I, little more than a boy, and Santlache fight
not two days old, left alone with my thirty men-at-arms, in a land I
knew not, among a people whose tongue I could not speak, to hold down
the land which I had taken from them.'

'And that was here at home?' said Una.

'Yes, here. See! From the Upper Ford, Weland's Ford, to the Lower
Ford, by the Belle Allee, west and east it ran half a league. From the
Beacon of Brunanburgh behind us here, south and north it ran a full
league--and all the woods were full of broken men from Santlache, Saxon
thieves, Norman plunderers, robbers, and deer-stealers. A hornets' nest
indeed!

'When De Aquila had gone, Hugh would have thanked me for saving their
lives; but the Lady Aelueva said that I had done it only for the sake
of receiving the Manor.

"'How could I know that De Aquila would give it me?" I said. "If I had
told him I had spent my night in your halter he would have burned the
place twice over by now."

"'If any man had put my neck in a rope," she said, "I would have seen
his house burned thrice over before I would have made terms."

"'But it was a woman," I said; and I laughed, and she wept and said
that I mocked her in her captivity.

"'Lady," said I, "there is no captive in this valley except one, and he
is not a Saxon."

'At this she cried that I was a Norman thief, who came with false,
sweet words, having intended from the first to turn her out in the
fields to beg her bread. Into the fields! She had never seen the face
of war!

'I was angry, and answered, "This much at least I can disprove, for I
swear"--and on my sword-hilt I swore it in that place--"I swear I will
never set foot in the Great Hall till the Lady Aelueva herself shall
summon me there."

'She went away, saying n