ay to-night. I can see with a mother's eye that you are not fit to
mount your horse. You are hurt, and need rest. Go to him and persuade
him that he must stay."

"Madam, it is impossible," said Denis; "and leave me, please. You heard
our lord's commands. We have our preparations to make."

As he spoke Denis glanced at Saint Simon, who had waved back a man who
came to help, and was examining their horses' girths himself. Then,
turning his eyes towards the doorway, he caught sight of the King
returning, unnoticed by the landlady, who clutched at Denis's doublet
again, and continued in a low, excited voice:

"You do not know, my child. Before long it will be dark."

"There will be a moon nearly at the full, madam," said Denis.

"Oh yes, yes, sir; if it is not clouded over; but the road from here
towards London is through the forest and overhung with trees and--and,"
she added, in a whisper, "it is not safe."

"We have our swords, madam," said the youth; but he winced as he spoke,
for his right arm seemed to give him a sudden warning twinge of his
inability to use his weapon. "What do you mean about the road not being
safe?"

The woman drew herself closer to him, and her ruddy buxom face became
blotched with white.

"Bad men," she whispered. "Robbers and murderers have a stronghold in
the forest, from which they come out to lay wait for rich travellers."

"Are they mounted men?" said Denis, as the King slowly drew nearer.

"Yes," she said, "with the best of horses."

"And do they steal horses too?"

"Oh yes," she whispered, with a shudder.

"Then that man who watched us here was one of them, was he not?" cried
Denis excitedly.

The woman's jaw dropped, and the whiteness in her countenance increased.

"You saw that man, and you know!" cried Denis excitedly again.

The woman closed her lips and seemed to press them tightly together, as
she said in a strange voice:

"You will be advised by me, and stay here, where you will be safe. I
cannot--I will not--let you go."

"Indeed!" said the King fiercely, and the woman started as she realised
that her guest had heard her words.

"Back into your own place, madam," continued the King. "I allow no one
to tamper with my servants."

The woman shrank trembling back, for there was that in her guest's
manner which she felt she must obey; and with her hands clasped to her
breast as if to restrain her emotion, she went slowly into the house,
the King watch