and more insolent. Today he complains, forsooth, that the last buck
we killed was killed on his ground, and by rights belonged to him.
He threatens that his foresters and huntsmen will wage war with us
in future if we 'trespass' upon his rights, and wrest our spoil
from us! Beshrew me if I submit to much more! Patience and
forbearance are useless with such a man. I would I had not conceded
all I have done in the interests of peace."

Bertram's face was crimson with anger, Edred's eyes had widened in
astonishment, whilst Julian burst out in indignant remonstrance and
argument.

"His ground! his rights! How can he dare say that? Why, the buck
was killed at Juno's Pool; and all the world knows that that is
within the confines of Chad, and that all forest rights there
belong to the Lord of Chad! I would I could force his false words
down his false throat! I would I could--" but the boy suddenly
ceased, because he caught his mother's warning eye upon him, and
saw that his father had opened his lips to speak.

"Ay, and he knows it himself as well as we do; but he is growing
bolder and bolder through that monstrous claim he is ever
threatening to push--the claim of his son-in-law to be rightful
Lord of Chad! Phew! he will find it hard to prove that claim, or to
oust the present lord. But Mortimer has money and to spare, and
Chad has long been to him what Naboth's vineyard was to King Ahab--

"Brother Emmanuel, that simile is thine, and a right good one, too.

"He will seize on any pretext to pick a quarrel; and if he dares,