ot slaying thee, or for doing thy work and
slaying thy foe?"

Said Christopher to the guard: "Good fellow, fetch here a good horse
ready saddled and bridled, and be speedy."

So the man went: and Christopher said to Simon: "For the knife in my
side, I forgive it thee; and as to the slaying of thy friend, it is not
for me to take up the feud. But this is no place for thee: if Jack of
the Tofts, or any of his sons, or one of the captains findeth thee, soon
art thou sped; wherefore I rede thee, when yonder lad hath brought thee
the horse, show me the breadth of thy back, and mount the beast, and put
the most miles thou canst betwixt me and my folk; for they love me."

Said Simon: "Sorry payment for making thee a king!"

Said Christopher: "Well, thou art in the right; I may well give gold for
getting rid of such as thou." And he put his hand into a pouch that hung
on his chair, and drew out thence a purse, and gave it unto Simon, who
took it and opened it and looked therein, and then flung it down on the
ground.

Christopher looked on him wrathfully with reddened face, and cried out:
"Thou dog! wouldst thou be an earl and rule the folk? What more dost
thou want?"

"This!" cried out Simon, and leapt upon him, knife aloft. Christopher
was unarmed utterly; but he caught hold of the felon's right arm with
his right hand, and gripped the wrist till he shrieked; then he raised
up his mighty left hand, and drave it down on Simon's head by the ear,
and all gave way before it, and the murderer fell crushed and dead to
earth.

Therewith came in the man-at-arms to tell him that the horse was come;
but stared wild when he saw the dead man on the ground. But Christopher
said: "My lad, here hath been one who would have thrust a knife into
an unarmed man, wherefore I must needs give him his wages. But now thou
hast this to do: take thou this dead man and bind him so fast on the
horse thou hast brought that he will not come off till the bindings be
undone; and bind withal the head of this other, who was once a great man
and an evil, before the slayer of him, so that it also may be fast; then
get thee to horse and lead this beast and its burden till ye are well
on the highway to Oakenham, and then let him go and find his way to the
gate of the city if God will. And hearken, my lad; seest thou this
gold which lieth scattering on the floor here? this was mine, but is no
longer, since I have given it away to the dead man just before he