lost for ever, and though I were to bring the money
I should not be suffered to redeem them.'

* * * * *

Now the Abbot had been counting the days as well as the Knight, and
the next morning he said to his monks: 'This day year there came a
Knight and borrowed of me four hundred pounds, giving his lands in
surety. And if he come not to pay his debt ere midnight tolls they
will be ours for ever.'

'It is full early yet,' answered the Prior, 'he may still be coming.'

'He is far beyond the sea,' said the Abbot, 'and suffers from hunger
and cold. How is he to get here?'

'It were a shame,' said the Prior, 'for you to take his lands. And you
do him much wrong if you drive such a hard bargain.'

'He is dead or hanged,' spake a fat-headed monk who was the cellarer,
'and we shall have his four hundred pounds to spend on our gardens
and our wines,' and he went with the Abbot to attend the court of
justice wherein the Knight's lands would be declared forfeited by the
High Justiciar.

'If he come not this day,' cried the Abbot, rubbing his hands, 'if he
come not this day, they will be ours.'

'He will not come yet,' said the Justiciar, but he knew not that the
Knight was already at the outer gate, and Little John with him.

'Welcome, Sir Knight,' said the porter. 'The horse that you ride is
the noblest that ever I saw. Let me lead them both to the stable, that
they may have food and rest.'

'They shall not pass these gates,' answered the Knight sternly, and he
entered the hall alone, where the monks were sitting at meat, and
knelt down and bowed to them.

'I have come back, my lord,' he said to the Abbot, who had just
returned from the court. 'I have come back this day as I promised.'

'Have you brought my money?' was all the Abbot said.

'Not a penny,' answered the Knight, who wished to see how the Abbot
would treat him.

'Then what do you here without it?' cried the Abbot in angry tones.

'I have come to pray you for a longer day,' answered the Knight
meekly.

'The day was fixed and cannot be gainsaid,' replied the Justiciar, but
the Knight only begged that he would stand his friend and help him in
his strait. 'I am with the Abbot,' was all the Justiciar would answer.

'Good Sir Abbot, be my friend,' prayed the Knight again, 'and give me
one chance more to get the money and free my lands. I will serve you
day and night till I have four hundred pounds to redeem them.'

But t