ut, mother, I have many friends in the wood. There is Cnut, their
chief, your own first cousin, and many others of our friends, all good
men and true, though forced by the cruel Norman laws to refuge in the
woods."

"What would you do?" again his mother asked.

"I would take Ronald my pony and ride to warn them of the danger that
threatens."

"You had best go on foot, my son. Doubtless men have been set to see
that none from the Saxon homesteads carry the warning to the woods. The
distance is not beyond your reach, for you have often wandered there,
and on foot you can evade the eye of the watchers; but one thing, my
son, you must promise, and that is, that in no case, should the earl and
his bands meet with the outlaws, will you take part in any fray or
struggle."

"That will I willingly, mother," he said. "I have no cause for offense
against the castle or the forest, and my blood and my kin are with both.
I would fain save shedding of blood in a quarrel like this. I hope that
the time may come when Saxon and Norman may fight side by side, and I
may be there to see."

A few minutes later, having changed his blue doublet for one of more
sober and less noticeable color, Cuthbert started for the great forest,
which then stretched to within a mile of Erstwood. In those days a large
part of the country was covered with forest, and the policy of the
Normans in preserving these woods for the chase tended to prevent the
increase of cultivation.

The farms and cultivated lands were all held by Saxons, who although
nominally handed over to the nobles to whom William and his successors
had given the fiefs, saw but little of their Norman masters. These
stood, indeed, much in the position in which landlords stand to their
tenants, payment being made, for the most part, in produce. At the edge
of the wood the trees grew comparatively far apart, but as Cuthbert
proceeded further into its recesses, the trees in the virgin forest
stood thick and close together. Here and there open glades ran across
each other, and in these his sharp eye, accustomed to the forest, could
often see the stags starting away at the sound of his footsteps.

It was a full hour's journey before Cuthbert reached the point for which
he was bound. Here, in an open space, probably cleared by a storm ages
before, and overshadowed by giant trees, was a group of men of all ages
and appearances. Some were occupied in stripping the skin off a buck
which hung fr