?' said Una.

'Never,' Sir Richard answered smiling. 'I had made me a little hut of wood
up the hill, and there I did justice and slept.... De Aquila wheeled
aside, and his shield shook on his back. "No matter, boy," said he. "I
will remit the homage for a year."'

'He meant Sir Richard needn't give him dinner there the first year,' Puck
explained.

'De Aquila stayed with me in the hut and Hugh, who could read and write
and cast accounts, showed him the roll of the Manor, in which were written
all the names of our fields and men, and he asked a thousand questions
touching the land, the timber, the grazing, the mill, and the fish-ponds,
and the worth of every man in the valley. But never he named the Lady
AElueva's name, nor went he near the Great Hall. By night he drank with us
in the hut. Yes, he sat on the straw like an eagle ruffled in her
feathers, his yellow eyes rolling above the cup, and he pounced in his
talk like an eagle, swooping from one thing to another, but always binding
fast. Yes; he would lie still awhile, and then rustle in the straw, and
speak sometimes as though he were King William himself, and anon he would
speak in parables and tales, and if at once we saw not his meaning he
would yerk us in the ribs with his scabbarded sword.

'"Look you, boys," said he, "I am born out of my due time. Five hundred
years ago I would have made all England such an England as neither Dane,
Saxon, nor Norman should have conquered. Five hundred years hence I should
have been such a councillor to Kings as the world hath never dreamed of.
'Tis all here," said he, tapping his big head, "but it hath no play in
this black age. Now Hugh here is a better man than thou art, Richard." He
had made his voice harsh and croaking, like a raven's.

'"Truth," said I. "But for Hugh, his help and patience and long-suffering,
I could never have kept the Manor."

'"Nor thy life either," said De Aquila. "Hugh has saved thee not once, but
a hundred times. Be still, Hugh!" he said. "Dost thou know, Richard, why
Hugh slept, and why he still sleeps, among thy Norman men-at-arms?"

'"To be near me," said I, for I thought this was truth.

'"Fool!" said De Aquila. "It is because his Saxons have begged him to rise
against thee, and to sweep every Norman out of the valley. No matter how I
know. It is truth. Therefore Hugh hath made himself an hostage for thy
life, well knowing that if any harm befell thee from his Saxons thy
Normans would s