pirates, if not spirits of the men of old of whom I had been
dreaming. Therefore I went swiftly on my path, and covered quite a mile
ere I brake into the forest again, and made my way back to another side
of that old ruined fort. Now, as I crept up, I saw little that was
strange--only two men walking to and fro in earnest conversation, and
from where I lay--for nearer I durst not approach--I could hear nothing
of their talk. They were men of light and supple build, bearded, and of
dark swarthy skin, as of those who know no shelter but the decking of a
ship, and their hands were seldom absent, as they paced it side by side,
from the hilts of the brace of daggers swinging from their waists. I
guessed that they were pirates, and my heart fell as I remembered what
manner of men they were--haters of all--their God, their king, their
fellow-men--and how, in consequence, the hand of man was against their
hand, as their hand was against man's. Where were the other men I had
seen? In a moment I guessed the truth, for I caught the dull sound of
digging and delving in the earth below--thud, thud, thud--as of many
spades and picks, and beyond the angle of the wall I saw the earthwork
piled with new earth in many places. So my young eyes peered curiously
and cautiously out through the leaves, and a flood of feelings struggled
in my heart, and the digging went on--thud, thud, thud--beneath my very
feet, and the two strange men trod ever up and down, staying at times
upon their way to point to this side or that, to tap the wall, or draw
figures with their swords amid the fallen leafage.

I stood a long time fixed to the ground, and then with a great effort I
stole noiselessly away, and, once on the beaten track, I hasted on to
the moat-house.

With a heart that I could hear beating, I turned my back on the bay,
and, crossing the little drawbridge, craved of a warder at the
gate--half fisher, half ecclesiastic, in a frayed frock and seamen's
shoes--an audience of my Lord the Archbishop for the delivery of a
missive from the Abbot of the Vale, that must be delivered into his hand
alone.

CHAPTER III.

Of my _Lord Maugher_ and his _Familiar Demon_. How he received the
abbot's letter, and how I was courteously entertained at his house of
_Blanchelande_.

And my lord was not difficult of access. He sat in a deep chair in the
hall, and round him were all manner of strange things whose shape and
name I knew not, but little was