close beside me, as if to rest ere they mounted. 'My
friends,'--what should ail me to talk to 'em I cannot tell,--'My
friends, but ye seem to have more work in your hands than wit in your
noddles--ye might have spared yourselves the labour, I trow.' With that
the whole rout turned upon me with a shout and a chattering that would
have dumbfounded the shrillest tongue in the whole hundred--the
mill-wheel was nothing to it. I would have escaped, but my feet were
holden like as they had been i' the stocks. One, the foremost of the
crew--I do think he had a long tail and gaping hoofs, but I was over
frightened to see very clear--came with a mocking malicious grin, his
tongue lolling out, and his eyes glaring and fiend-like.

"'Pray, good friend,' said he, pulling off a little black bonnet, 'be
compassionate enough to help us with our load to the hill-top.' Now was
I terrified beyond measure, insomuch that I made a desperate tug,
whereby loosening myself, I ran like the wind, the wicked fiends
following and roaring after me with loud and bitter curses. I jumped
into the river, in my hurry having missed the ford, and I heard 'em
still shouting, and, as I thought, pursuing me; but the Virgin and St
Chadde were my helpers, for when Biddy opened the door in the morning, I
lay there in a great swoon, with my head bruised, and a hole in my good
grey cloak."

"And so thou comest here a-boasting of thy drunken discoveries," said
the Thane. "Thou shalt wish thou hadst not gotten thee so soon from the
fiend's clutches. A spice of old Nicholas' vocation may not be amiss;
yet, by way of relish to thy tale"----

The agony of the culprit was loud and appalling, but the chief was
inexorable, until his denunciations were interrupted by a stranger, who
craved a short respite for the groaning supplicant.

He was meanly clad: a coarse cloak, stained and threadbare, was thrown
open, showing a close habit of the most ordinary fabric; yet a natural
and graceful bearing imparted a dignity even to his poor and worthless
habiliments.

"I am a stranger, and sore oppressed with long travel. Penury and
misfortune have been my lot, and I am driven from place to place without
a home or a morsel of bread. Last night, long after the curfew, I came
hither, but no _hospitium_ or religious house being near, I sat down by
the hill-side yonder, until morning should enable me to crave help for
my hopeless journey. The morning had not dawned ere I awoke--a lo