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a. conan doyle

the white company

contents.

i. how the black sheep came forth from the fold

ii. how alleyne edricson came out into the world

iii. how hordle john cozened the fuller of lymington

iv. how the bailiff of southampton slew the two masterless

men iv. how a strange company gathered at the "pied merlin"

vi. how samkin aylward wagered his feather-bed

vii. how the three comrades journeyed through the woodlands

viii. the three friends

ix. how strange things befel in minsted wood

x. how hordle john found a man whom he might follow xi.

how a young shepherd had a perilous flock

xii. how alleyne learned more than he could teach

xiii. how the white company set forth to the wars

xiv. how sir nigel sought for a wayside venture

xv. how the yellow cog sailed forth from life

xvi. how the yellow cog fought the two rover galleys

xvii. how the yellow cog crossed the bar of gironde

xviii. how sir nigel loring put a patch upon his eye

xix. how there was stir at the abbey of st. andrews

xx. how alleyne won his place in an honorable guild

xxi. how agostino pisano risked his head

xxii. how the bowmen held wassail at the "rose de guienne"

xxiii. how england held the lists at bordeaux

xxiv. how a champion came forth from the east

xxv. how sir nigel wrote to twynham castle

xxvi. how the three comrades gained a mighty treasure

xxvii. how roger club-foot was passed into paradise

xxviii. how the comrades came over the marshes of france

xxix. how the blessed hour of sight came to the lady tiphaine

xxx. how the brushwood men came to the chateau of villefranche

xxxi. how five men held the keep of villefranche

xxxii. how the company took counsel round the fallen tree

xxxiii. how the army made the passage of roncesvalles

xxxiv. how the company made sport in the vale of pampeluna

xxxv. how sir nigel hawked at an eagle

xxxvi. how sir nigel took the patch from his eye

xxxvii. how the white company came to be disbanded

xxxviii .of the home-coming to hampshire

chapter i.

how the black sheep came forth from the fold.

the great bell of beaulieu was ringing. far away through the

forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell, peat-cutters

on blackdown and fishers upon the exe heard the distant throbbing

rising and falling upon the sultry summer air. it was a common

sound in those parts--as common as the chatter of the jays and

the booming of the bittern. yet the fishers and the peasants

raised their heads and looked questions at each other, for the

angelus had already gone and vespers was still far off. why

should the great bell of beaulieu toll when the shadows were

neither short nor long?

all round the abbey the monks were trooping in. under the long

green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the

white-robed brothers gathered to the sound, from the vine-yard

and the vine-press, from the bouvary or ox-farm, from the marl-

pits and salterns, even from the distant iron-works of sowley and

the outlying grange of st. leonard's, they had all turned their

steps homewards. it had been no sudden call. a swift messenger

had the night before sped round to the outlying dependencies of

the abbey, and had left the summons for every monk to be back in

the cloisters by the third hour after noontide. so urgent a

message had not been issued within the memory of old lay-brother

athanasius, who had cleaned t