"Knights, to the rescue! Hoibricht is taken!" shouted they of Guisnes,
galloping towards him.
"A bear! a bear! To me, Biornssons! To me, Vikings all!" shouted Hereward.
And the Danes leapt up, and ran toward him, axe in hand.
The chatelain's knights rode up likewise; and so it befell, that Hereward
carried his prisoner safe into camp.
"And who are you, gallant knight?" asked he of his prisoner.
"Hoibricht, nephew of Eustace, Count of Guisnes."
"So I suppose you will be ransomed. Till then--Armorer!"
And the hapless Hoibricht found himself chained and fettered, and sent off
to Hereward's tent, under the custody of Martin Lightfoot.
"The next day," says the chronicler, "the Count of Guisnes, stupefied with
grief at the loss of his nephew, sent the due honor and service to his
prince, besides gifts and hostages."
And so ended the troubles of Baldwin, and Eustace of Guisnes
CHAPTER VIII.
HOW A FAIR LADY EXERCISED THE MECHANICAL ART TO WIN HEREWARD'S LOVE.
The fair Torfrida sat in an upper room of her mother's house in St. Omer,
alternately looking out of the window and at a book of mechanics. In the
garden outside, the wryneck (as is his fashion in May) was calling
Pi-pi-pi among the gooseberry bushes, till the cobwalls rang again. In the
book was a Latin recipe for drying the poor wryneck, and using him as a
philtre which should compel the love of any person desired.
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