by giant men who came from the south. Can I not see by your brightened eye how you would love to look upon these things? Come then with me, and, by these ten finger-bones! there is not one of them which you shall not see.'
'I should indeed love to look upon them,' Alleyne answered; 'but I have come from Beaulieu for a purpose and I must be true to my service, even as thou art true to thine.'
'Bethink you again, mon ami,' quoth Aylward, 'that you might do much good yonder, since there are three hundred men in the Company, and none who has ever a word of grace for them, and yet the Virgin knows that there was never a set of men who were in more need of it. Sickerly the one duty may balance the other. Your brother hath done without you this many a year, and, as I gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieu to see you during all that time, so he cannot be in any great need of you.'
'Besides,' said John, 'the Socman of Minstead is a bye-word through the forest, from Bramshaw Hill to Holmesley Walk. He is a drunken, brawling, perilous churl, as you may find to your cost.'
'The more reason that I should strive to mend him,' quoth Alleyne. 'There is no need to urge me, friends, for my own wishes would draw me to France, and it would be a joy to me if I could go with you. But indeed and indeed it cannot be, so here I take my leave of you, for yonder square tower amongst the trees upon the right must surely be the church of Minstead, and I may reach it by this path through the woods.'
'Well, God be with thee, lad!' cried the archer, pressing Alleyne to his heart. 'I am quick to love, and quick to hate, and 'fore God I am loth to part.'
'Would it not be well,' said John, 'that we should wait here, and see what manner of greeting you have from your brother? You may prove to be as welcome as the king's purveyor to the village dame.'
