'Oh, for that,' said the other, 'I count it not a fly; for I had promised myself a good hour ago that I should go with thee, since the life seems to be a goodly and proper one. Yet I would fain have had the feather-bed.'
'I doubt it not, mon ami,' quoth the archer, going back to his tankard. 'Here is to thee, lad, and may we be good comrades to each other! But holà! what is it that ails our friend of the wrathful face?'
The unfortunate limner had been sitting up, rubbing himself ruefully and staring about with a vacant gaze, which showed that he knew neither where he was nor what had occurred to him. Suddenly, however, a flash of intelligence had come over his sodden features, and he rose and staggered for the door. ''Ware the ale!' he said in a hoarse whisper, shaking a warning finger at the company. 'Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale!' and clapping his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the darkness, amid a shout of laughter, in which the vanquished joined as merrily as the victor. The remaining forester and the two labourers were also ready for the road, and the rest of the company turned to the blankets which Dame Eliza and the maid had laid out for them upon the floor. Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of the day, was soon in a deep slumber, broken only by fleeting visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and the many strange folk whom he had met at the 'Pied Merlin.'
CHAPTER VII
HOW THE THREE COMRADES JOURNEYED THROUGH THE WOODLANDS
At early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when lighting was so scarce and dear. Indeed, early as it was when Dame Eliza began to stir, it seemed that others could be earlier still, for the door was ajar and the learned student of Cambridge had taken himself off, with a mind
