n the wood, covered with heather and sparsely peopled;
Mayfield to the north, once the abode of the great Saint Dunstan,
and the scene of his conflicts with Satan; Hothly to the south,
where, at the date of our tale, lived the Hodleghs, an Anglo-Norman
brood.

The Lord of Walderne was Ralph, son of Sybilla de Dene (West Dean)
and Robert of Icklesham (near Winchelsea). He was blessed, or
cursed, as the case might be, with three children; Roger, Sybil,
and Mabel.

The old man came of a stern fighting stock: what wonder that his
son inherited his character in this respect. He was a wilful yet
affectionate lad of strong passions, one who might be led but never
driven: unfortunately his father did not read his character aright,
and at length a crisis arose.

Roger wooed the daughter of the neighbouring Lord of Hothly, but
found a rival in a cousin, one Waleran de Dene, a favourite of his
father, and a constant visitor at Walderne Castle. In those rude
days the solution of the difficulty seemed simple--to fight the
question out. The dead man would trouble neither lad nor lass any
more, the living lead the fair bride to church; and, sooth to say,
there were many misguided maidens who were proud to be fought for,
and quite willing to give their hand to the victor.

So Roger challenged his cousin to fight when he met him returning
from a visit to Edith de Hodlegh, and the challenge being readily
accepted, the unhappy Waleran de Dene bit the dust. The old lord,
grieving sore over the death of his sister's son, drove Roger from
home and bade him never darken his doors again, till he had made
reparation by a pilgrimage or a crusade; and Roger departed,
mourned by his sisters and all the household, and was heard of no
more during his father's lifetime.

But more grief was in store for the stern old lord of Walderne. The
third child, Mabel, the youngest daughter, fell in love with a
handsome young hunter, a Saxon outlaw of the type of Robin Hood,
who delivered her from a wild boar which would have slain or
cruelly mangled her. The old father had inspired no confidence in
his children: she met her outlaw again and again by stealth, and
eventually became the bride of Wulfstan, last representative of the
old English family who had possessed Michelham before the Conquest
{3}.

The remaining child, Sybil, alone gladdened her old father's heart
and closed his eyes, weary of the world, in peace; after which she
married Sir Nichola