l."

'"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 nothing, and I walked out, and Hugh limped after
me, whistling dolorously (that is a custom of the English), and we came
upon the three Saxons that had bound me. They were now bound by my
men-at-arms, and behind them stood some fifty stark and sullen churls of
the House and the Manor, waiting to see what should fall. We heard De
Aquila's trumpets