Evening star., 1905-10-11

swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks. A
minute later came the shaggy deer-hounds,
dozen or fourteen of them running on a
hot scent. with nose to earth and tail In
afr. As they streamed past the silent for
est around broke suddenly into loud life,
with galloping of hoofs. cracking OF brush
wood. and the short. sharp cries of the
hunters. Close behind the pack rode
fourier and yeoman-pricker, whooping
on the laggards and encouraging the lead
ers. in the shrill half-French jargon which
was the language of venery and woodcraft.
Alleyne was still gazing after them, listen
ing to the loud 'Hkye-a-Bayard! Hyke-a-
Pomers! Hyke-a-Lebrytr' with which they
called upon their fayorite hounds when a
group of horsemen crashed out through the
underwood at the very spot where the serf
and he were standing.
The one who led was man between fifty
and sixty years of age. war-worn and
weather-beaten, with a broad. thoughtful
forehead and eyes which shone brightly
from under his fierce and overhung brows.
His beard, streaked thickly with gray
bristled forward from his chin, and spoke
of a passionate nature, while the long. fine
ly cut face and firm mouth marked the
leader of men. His figure was erect and
soldierly, and he rode his horsa with the
careless grace of a man whose life had
been spent in the saddle. In common garb,
his masterful face and flashing eye would
have marked him as one who was born to
rule; but now. with his silken tunic pow
dered with golden feurs-de-lis, his velvet
mantle lined with the royal minever and
the lions of England stamped In silver upon
his harness, none could fail to recognize
the noble Edward, most warlke and pow
erful of all the long line of fighting mon
archs who had ruled the Anglo-Norman
race. Alleyne doffed hat and bowed head
at the sight Of him, but the serf folded his
hands and leaned them upon his cudgel
looking with little love at the knot of nobles
and knights-in-w waiting who rode behind
the king.
"Ha?' cried Edward. refining up for an
instant his powerful black steed. lie CERT
est passe? Non? lei, Brocas; tn parles
Anglais.'
''The deer clowns?" said a hard-visaged
sWarthy-faced man. who rode at the king s
elbow. If We have headed 1t back 1t is as
much as your ears are WORTH
IT passed by the blighted beech there"
Sain ars hleyne pointing ting and the hounds
1T Is WELL" cried Edward still speaking
In French; for, though he could understand
English, he had never learned to express
himself IN so barbarous and unpublished a
tongue. BY my faith, sirs,'' he continued,
half turning in his saddle to address his
escort, unless my woodcraft is sadly at
fault, 1t Is stag of six tines and the finest
that we have reused this journey. A gol-
den st. Hubert to the man who is the first
to sound the mort He shook his bride
as he spoke and thundered away, his
knights lying low upon their horses and
galloping as hard as whip and spur would
uiiNS tltiu, III the nope OF winning Cne
kings prize. Away they drove down the
long green glade-bay horses, black and
gray. riders clad in every shade of velvet
fur. or silk, with CLINT of brazen horn and
fash of knife and spear. One only fingered.
the black-browed Baron Brocas, who MAX
ing a gambade which brought him within
arm-sweep of the serf, slashed him across
the face with his riding whip. "Doff, dog,
dor! he Missed. when monarch deigns
to lower his eyes to such as your'-then
spurred through the underwood and was
gone, with CLEAN of steel shoes and fiut-
ter of dead leaves.
The villain took the cruel blow without
vince or cry, as one to whom stripes are a
blrthr1ght and an Inheritance. His eyes
flashed. however. and he shook his bony
hand with a fierce, wild gesture after the
retreating figure
BLACK hound of Gascony" he muttered
evil the day That you and those like you
set foot in free England! I know thy ken
mel of Rochecourt. The night will come
when may DO to thee and thine what you
and your class have wrought upon mine
and me. May God smite me If 1 fail to
smite thee, thou French robber with thy
wife and thy child, and all that is under
thy castle roofv' -
"Forbearw cried Alleyne. Mix not Gods
name with these unhallowed threats! And
yet 1T was towards blow, and one to stir
the blood and loose the tongue of the most
peaceful Let me find some soothing SIM
pies and lay them on the veal to draw the
sting"
Nay, there is but one thing that can
draw the sting and that the future may
bring to me- But, clerk, If you would see
your brother, you must on for there is a
meeting today, and his merry men will
await him ere the shadows turn from west
to east. l pray you not to hold him back
for 1t would be an evil thing If all the
stout lads were there and the leader a
missing. would come with you, but. sooth
to say, L am stationed here and may not
move. The path over yonder, betwixt the
oak and the thorn. should bring you out
into his neither field"
Alleyne lost no time In following the d.
rections of the wild, masterless man. whom
he left among the trees where he had found
him. His heart was the heavier for the
encounter, not only because all bitterness
and wrath were abhorrent to his gentle
nature, but also because it disturbed him
to hear his brother spokel of as though he
were chief of outlaws or the leader of a
party against the state. Indeed, of all the
things which he had seen yet in the world
to surprise him, there was none more
strange than the hate which class appeared
to bear to class. The talk of laborer, wood
man and villain in the inn had all pointed
to the widespread mutiny, and now his
brothers name was spoken as though he
were the very center of the universal d's-
content In good truth. the commons
throughout the length and breadth of the
land were heart-weary of this fine game of
chivalry which had been played so long at
their expense So long as knight and baron
were strength and a guard to the king
dom, they might be endured: but now when
all men knew that the great battles in
France had been won by English yeomen
and Welsh stabbers, warike fame, the only
fame to which his class had ever aspjred,
appeared to have deserted the plate-clad
horsemen. The sports of the lists had done
much in days gone by to impress the minds
of the people, but the plumed and UNIV. eldy
champion was no longer an object either
OF fear or of reverence to men whose faith
ers and brothers had shot into the press
at Crecy or Poictiers and seen the proud
est chivalry In the world unable to make
head against the weapons of disciplined
peasants. Power had changed hands. The
protector had become the protected, and
the whole fabric Of the feudal system was
tottering to a fall. Hence the fierce NUT
terings of the lower classes and the con-
slant discomfort, breaking out into local
tumult and outrage, and eliminating some
years later In the great rising of Tyler.
What Alleyne saw and wondered at in
Hampshire would have appealed equally to
the traveller in any other English county,
from the channer to the marches of Scot
Ion