and the sooner the better, say I. Although I am no
man of war, and love looking after my falcons or giving food to my dogs
far more than exchanging hard blows, yet would I gladly don the buff and
steel coat to aid in levelling the keep of that robber and tyrant, Sir
John of Wortham."

"Thanks, good Hubert," said the lad. "I must not stand gossiping here.
The news you have told me, as you know, touches me closely, for I would
not that harm should come to the forest men."

"Let it not out, I beseech thee, Cuthbert, that the news came from me,
for temperate as Sir Walter is at most times, he would, methinks, give
me short shift did he know that the wagging of my tongue might have
given warning through which the outlaws of the Chase should slip through
his fingers."

"Fear not, Hubert; I can be mum when the occasion needs. Can you tell me
farther, when the bands now gathering are likely to set forth?"

"In brief breathing space," the falconer replied. "Those who first
arrived I left swilling beer, and devouring pies and other provisions
cooked for them last night, and from what I hear, they will set forth as
soon as the last comer has arrived. Whichever be their quarry, they will
try to fall upon it before the news of their arrival is bruited abroad."

With a wave of his hand to the falconer the boy started. Leaving the
road, and striking across the slightly undulated country dotted here
and there by groups of trees, the lad ran at a brisk trot, without
stopping to halt or breathe, until after half an hour's run he arrived
at the entrance of a building, whose aspect proclaimed it to be the
abode of a Saxon franklin of some importance. It would not be called a
castle, but was rather a fortified house, with a few windows looking
without, and surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge, and capable
of sustaining anything short of a real attack. Erstwood had but lately
passed into Norman hands, and was indeed at present owned by a Saxon.
Sir William de Lance, the father of the lad who is now entering its
portals, was a friend and follower of the Earl of Evesham; and soon
after his lord had married Gweneth the heiress of all these fair
lands--given to him by the will of the king, to whom by the death of
her father she became a ward--Sir William had married Editha, the
daughter and heiress of the franklin of Erstwood, a cousin and dear
friend of the new Countess of Evesham.

In neither couple could the marriage at first h