at was that, Motley?"

"Why, said he, if so be Sir William comes home again, he'll find his
wife has got a cuckoo in her nest." Here he burst from the stranger with
a malicious shout, and descending a by-path, was soon lost amidst the
intricacies of a deep wood, skirting the verge of an extensive forest.

The traveller's brow gathered a heavier gloom. With unconscious haste he
soon gained a gentle ascent, which led by a narrow and deep path to the
mansion. Nigh to the bridge over the moat stood a blacksmith's hovel,
conveniently situated for all job-work emanating from the armoury and
the kitchen, which at that time afforded full exercise for the musical
propensities of Darby Grimshaw's great anvil. This hut was a general
resort to all the idlers in the vicinity; Grim, as he was generally
styled for the sake of abbreviation, discharging the office of "preses,"
or chief moderator, in all debates held therein. He was a shrewd fellow
and a bold one. A humorous and inquisitive cunning lurked in the corner
of his grey and restless eye. His curiosity was insatiable; and as a
cross-questioner, when fairly at work, for worming out a secret he had
not his fellow. His brain was a general deposit for odd scraps, and a
reservoir in which flowed all stray news about the country. He was an
abstract and chronicle of the time; and could tell you where the Earl of
Lancaster mustered his forces, the day of their march, and the very
purposes and projects of that turbulent noble. Even the secrets of my
lady's bower did not elude the prying of this indefatigable artist; at
any rate, he had the credit of knowing all that he assumed, which
amounted very much to the same thing as though his knowledge were
unlimited: a nod and a wink supplying the place of intelligence, when
his wondering neophytes grew disagreeably minute in their inquiries.

Towards this abode did the pilgrim bend his steps. A thick smoke hovered
about the thatch, that appeared very ingeniously adapted for the
reception and nurture of any stray spark that might happen to find there
a temporary lodgment. Several times had this Vulcan been burnt out, yet
the materials were easily replaced; and again and again the hovel arose
in all its pristine ugliness and disorder.

Darby was just kindling his fire: a merry-making overnight had trenched
upon morning duties, and daylight found him still stretched on his
pallet. Subsequent to this a noisy troop from the hall had roused him
f