y

are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of."

leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck

through the scattered huts of emery down, and out on to the broad

rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves

of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the

hillocks. the woods about this point fall away to the left and

the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps

keenly over the swelling uplands. the broad strips of bracken

glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly

doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great

questioning eyes towards the wayfarers.

alleyne gazed in admiration at the supple beauty of the creature;

but the archer's fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes

glistened with the fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter.

"tete dieu!" he growled, "were this france, or even guienne, we

should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. law or no law, i

have a mind to loose a bolt at her."

"i would break your stave across my knee first," cried john,

laying his great hand upon the bow. "what! man, i am forest-

born, and i know what comes of it. in our own township of hordle

two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very thing.

on my troth, i felt no great love when i first saw you, but since

then i have conceived over much regard for you to wish to see the

verderer's flayer at work upon you."

"it is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none

the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his

face for the west.

as they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from

heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again.

it was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they

darted from one clump of greenery to the other. now and again a

peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny

over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from

side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout

and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. chattering jays

and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and

anon the measured tapping of nature's carpenter, the great green

woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. on either side, as

the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and

expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and

brown moor to the distant smoke of lymington and the blue misty

channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the

woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest

distance the white spire of salisbury stood out hard and clear

against the cloudless sky. to alleyne whose days had been spent

in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide

free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living

which made his young blood tingle in his veins. even the heavy

john was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the

bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of french love songs in

a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden

that ever hearkened to serenade.

"i have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked

presently. "he hath good power of hatred. couldst see by his

cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. i warm to a man

who hath some gall in his liver."

"ah me!" sighed alleyne. "would it not be better if he had some

love in his heart?"

"i would not say nay to that. by my hilt! i shall never be said

to be traitor to the little king. let a man love the sex.

pasques dieu! they are made to be loved, les petites, from

whimple down to shoe-string! i am right glad, mon garcon, to see

that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so well."

"nay, i meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should

soften towards those who have wronged him."

the archer shook his head. "a man should love those of his own

breed," said he. "but it is not nature that an english-born man

should love a scot or a frenchman. ma foi! you have not seen a

drove of nithsdale raiders on their galloway nags, or you would

not speak of loving them. i would as soon take beelzebub himself

to my arms. i fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but

badly at beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is

right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and i myself with

these very eyes saw the bishop of lincoln hew into a scottish

hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of

showing him that he loved him."

alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an

opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the church. "you have

borne arms against the scots, then?" he asked.

"why, man, i first loosed string in battle when i was but a lad,

y