Whatever they were going to say the ladies
forestalled, for, rushing out across the prostrate bear, they overwhelmed
Hereward with praises, thanks, and, after the straightforward custom of
those days, with substantial kisses.
"You must be knighted at once," cried they. "You have knighted yourself by
that single blow."
"A pity, then," said one of the knights to the others, "that he had not
given that accolade to himself, instead of to the bear."
"Unless some means are found," said another, "of taking down this boy's
conceit, life will soon be not worth having here."
"Either he must take ship," said a third, "and look for adventures
elsewhere, or I must."
Martin Lightfoot heard those words; and knowing that envy and hatred, like
all other vices in those rough-hewn times, were apt to take very startling
and unmistakeable shapes, kept his eye accordingly on those three knights.
"He must be knighted,--he shall be knighted, as soon as Sir Gilbert comes
home," said all the ladies in chorus.
"I should be sorry to think," said Hereward, with the blundering mock
humility of a self-conceited boy, "that I had done anything worthy of such
an honor. I hope to win my spurs by greater feats than these."
A burst of laughter from the knights and gentlemen followed.
"How loud the young bantam crows after his first little scuffle!"
"Hark to him! What will he do next? Eat a dragon? Fly to the moon? Marry
the Sophy of Egypt's daughter?"
This last touched Hereward to the quick, for it was just what he thought
of doing; and his blood, heated enough already, beat quicker, as some one
cried, with the evident intent of picking a quarrel:
"That was meant for us.
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