squires, any one of whom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it with you in a very honourable way.'
The man scowled from one to the other, and his hand stole away from his sword.
'You ask me for a sign,' he said. 'Here is a sign for you, since you must have one.' As he spoke he whirled the covering from the object in front of him and showed to their horror that it was a newly severed human leg. 'By God's tooth!' he continued, with a brutal laugh, 'you ask me if I am a man of quarterings, and it is even so, for I am officer to the verderer's court at Lyndhurst. This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the other is already at Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what comes of being over fond of venison pasty.'
'Faugh!' cried Sir Nigel. 'Pass on the other side of the road, fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot our horses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by Our Lady, a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such a sight.'
'We hoped to snare a falcon,' said he presently, 'but we netted a carrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts are tougher than a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old game of war since ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen ten thousand brave men in one day with their faces to the sky, but I swear by Him who made me that I cannot abide the work of the butcher.'
'And yet, my fair lord,' said Edricson, 'there has, from what I hear, been much of such devil's work in France.'
'Too much, too much,' he answered. 'But I have ever observed that the foremost in the field are they who would scorn to mishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul! it is not they who carry the breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves who come crowding in when a way has been cleared for them. But what is this among the trees?'
'It is a shrine of Our Lady,' said Terlake, 'and a blind beggar who lives by the alms of those who worship there.'
'A shrine!' cried the knight. 'Then let us put up an
