G. A. Henty epub BOY KNIGHT

-Ah, Master Cuthbert,- he said, -what brings you so near to the castle? It is not often that you favor us with your presence.- -I am happier in the woods, as you well know, and was on my way thither but now, when I paused at the sight of all these troopers flocking in to Evesham. What enterprise has Sir Walter on hand now, think you?- -The earl keeps his own counsel,- said the falconer, -but methinks a shrewd guess might be made at the purport of the gathering. It was but three days since that his foresters were beaten back by the landless men, whom they caught in the very act of cutting up a fat buck. As thou knowest, my lord though easy and well-disposed to all, and not fond of harassing and driving the people as are many of his neighbors, is yet to the full as fanatical anent his forest privileges as the worst of them. They tell me that when the news came in of the poor figure that his foresters cut with broken bows and draggled plumes-for the varlets had soused them in a pond of not over savory water-he swore a great oath that he would clear the forest of the bands.