'I was angry, and answered, "This much at least I can disprove, for I
swear"--and on my sword-hilt I swore it in that place--"I swear I will
never set foot in the Great Hall till the Lady Ælueva herself shall
summon me there."

'She went away, saying nothing, and I walked out, and Hugh limped after
me, whistling dolorously (that is a custom of the English), and we came
upon the three Saxons that had bound me. They were now bound by my
men-at-arms, and behind them stood some fifty stark and sullen churls of
the House and the Manor, waiting to see what should fall. We heard De
Aquila's trumpets blow thin through the woods Kentward.

'"Shall we hang these?" said my men.

'"Then my churls will fight," said Hugh, beneath his breath; but I bade
him ask the three what mercy they hoped for.

'"None," said they all. "She bade us hang thee if our master died. And
we would have hanged thee. There is no more to it."

'As I stood doubting, a woman ran down from the oak wood above the
King's Hill yonder, and cried out that some Normans were driving off the
swine there.

'"Norman or Saxon," said I, "we must beat them back, or they will rob us
every day. Out at them with any arms ye have!" So I loosed those three
carles and we ran together, my men-at-arms and the Saxons with bills and
axes which they had hidden in the thatch of their huts, and Hugh led
them. Half-way up the King's Hill we found a false fellow from
Picardy--a sutler that sold wine in the Duke's camp--with a dead