"Go to," said Father Francis, smiling, "thou art a pert varlet. I will
do my best on Sunday to turn you to a better frame of mind."




CHAPTER V.

PREPARATIONS.


Next Sunday a large number of people from some miles round were gathered
on the green at Evesham, to hear Father Francis preach on the holy
sepulcher. The forest men in their green jerkins mingled with the crowd,
and a look of attention and seriousness was on the faces of all, for the
news of the loss of the holy sepulcher had really exercised a great
effect upon the minds of the people in England as elsewhere.

Those were the days of pilgrimage to holy places, when the belief in the
sanctity of places and things was overwhelming, and when men believed
that a journey to the holy shrines was sufficient to procure for them a
pardon for all their misdeeds. The very word "infidel" in those days was
full of horror, and the thought that the holy places of the Christians
were in the hands of Moslems affected all Christians throughout Europe
with a feeling of shame as well as of grief.

Among the crowd were many of the Norman retainers from the castle and
from many of the holds around, and several knights with the ladies of
their family stood a little apart from the edge of the gathering; for