so far through the forest?"

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

At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat, while the
other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and looked down at him
with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire gazed from rogue to avenger,
but as it was a matter which none could mend they tarried no longer, but
rode upon their way. Alleyne, looking back, saw that the murderer had
drawn bread and cheese from his scrip, and was silently munching it,
with the protecting cross still hugged to his breast, while the other,
black and grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow
athwart him.

CHAPTER XV. HOW THE YELLOW COG SAILED FORTH FROM LEPE.

That night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great monastic
barns and spicarium--ground well known both to Alleyne and to John, for
they were almost within sight of the Abbey of Beaulieu. A strange thrill
it gave to the young squire to see the well-remembered white dress once
more, and to hear the measured tolling of the deep vespers bell.
At early dawn they passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt
stream--men, horses, and baggage in the flat ferry barges--and so
journeyed on through the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe.
Topping the heathy down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the old
sea-port--a cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a bristle of
masts. To right and left the long blue curve of the Solent lapped in a
fringe of foam upon the yellow beach. Some way out from the town a line
of pessoners, creyers, and other small craft were rolling lazily on the
gentle swell. Further out still lay a great merchant-ship, high ended,
deep waisted, painted of a canary yellow, and towering above the
fishing-boats like a swan among duc