ul enough, though
nothing to be proud of in looks; and he served us well in my sally
and attack."

"It was his--" Mabel tried to say, but Sigbert hushed her.

"Let be, let be, my sweet lady; it was but my bounden duty."

"What's that? Speak out what passes there," demanded young
Courtwood, half-jealously still.

"A mere English villein, little better than a valet of the camp!"
were the exclamations around. "A noble damsel take note of him!
Fie for shame!"

"He has been true and brave," said the King. "Dost ask a guerdon
for him, young sir?" he added to Walter.

"What wouldst have, old Sigbert?" asked Walter, in a patronising
voice.

"I ask nothing, sir," returned the old squire. "To have seen my
lord's children in safety is all I wish. I have but done my duty."

King Fulk, who saw through the whole more clearly than some of those
around, yet still had the true Angevin and Norman contempt for a
Saxon, here said: "Old man, thou art trusty and shrewd, and mayst
be useful. Wilt thou take service as one of my men-at-arms?"

"Thou mayst," said Walter; "thou art not bound to me. England hath
enough of Saxon churls without thee, and I shall purvey myself an
esquire of youthful grace and noble blood."

Mabel looked at her betrothed and began to speak.

"No, no, sweet lady, I will have none of that rough, old masterful
sort about me."

"Sir King," said Sigbert, "I thank thee heartily. I would still
serve the Cross; but my vow has been, when my young lord and lady
should need me no more, to take the Cross of St. John with the
Hospitaliers."

"As a lay brother? Bethink thee," said Fulk of Anjou. "Noble blood
is needed for a Knight of the Order."

Sigbert smiled slightly, in spite of all the sadness of his face,
and the Knight Commander who had ridden with them, a Fleming by
birth, said--

"For that matter, Sir King, we are satisfied. Sigbert, the son of
Sigfrid, hath proved his descent from the old English kings of the
East Saxons, and the Order will rejoice to enrol in the novitiate so
experienced a warrior."

"Is this indeed so?" asked Fulk. "A good lineage, even if English!"

"But rebel," muttered Courtwood.

"It is so, Sir King," said Sigbert. "My father was disseised of the
lands of Hundberg, and died in the fens fighting under Hereward le
Wake. My mother dwelt under the protection of the Abbey of
Colchester, and, by and by, I served under our Atheling, and, when
King Henry's wars in No