ds and abets those who seek his
help, threw a chance in his way.

The earl had found it necessary to put a check upon the constant
slaughter of the deer in his large domains, which bade fair to
depopulate the forests. Therefore he had especially forbidden the
pages to shoot a stag or fawn, under any pretext, and as his orders
had been once or twice transgressed, he had caused it to be
intimated that the next offence, on the part of a page, would be
punished by expulsion: a very light penalty, when on many domains,
notably in the royal parks, it was death to a peasant or any common
person to kill the red deer.

All the young candidates for knighthood at Kenilworth had their
arrows marked, for an arrow was too expensive a thing to be wasted,
and therefore the young archers regained their shafts when they had
done their work at the target. Such marks were useful also in
preventing disputes.

One day, out in the woods, letting fly these shafts at lesser game,
such as they were permitted to kill, Hubert lost one of his arrows.
A few days afterwards the chief forester came up to the castle to
see the earl, who had just returned after a prolonged absence, and
his communication caused no little stir.

The next day, after chapel, the earl ordered all the pages, some
twenty-five in number, to assemble in their common room, where they
received such lessons in the "humanities" from the chaplain as
their lord compelled them to accept, often against their taste and
inclination, for they thought nothing worth learning save fighting
and hunting.

When they had assembled, the earl, attended by the chaplain,
appeared. They all stood in humble respect, and he looked with a
keen eye down their ranks, as they were ranged about twelve on each
side of the hall. A handsome, athletic set they were, dressed in
what we should call the Montfort livery--a garb which set off their
natural good looks abundantly--the dark features of Drogo; the
light eyes and flaxen hair of the son of a Provencal maiden, our
Hubert; were fair types of the varieties of appearance to be met
amongst the groups.

The earl's features were clouded.

"You are all aware, my boys, of the order that no one below
knightly rank should shoot deer in my forests?"

"We are," said one and all.

"Does any page profess ignorance of the rule?"

No reply.

"Then I have another question to put, and first of all, let me beg
most earnestly to press upon the guilty one the n