The rest set on
him, cut his head off, and there it sticks on the gable spike of the hall
to this hour. And do you ask, after that, why free Englishmen are dull
company?"
"And our turn will come next," growled somebody. "The turn will go all
round; no man's life or land, wife or daughters, will be safe soon for
these accursed Frenchmen, unless, as the old man says, Hereward comes
back."
Once again the old man wailed out of the chimney-corner: "Why did they
ever send Hereward away? I warned the good Earl, I warned my good lady,
many a time, to let him sow his wild oats and be done with them; or they
might need him some day when they could not find him! He was a lad! He was
a lad!" and again he whined, and sank into silence.
Hereward heard all this dry-eyed, hardening his heart into a great
resolve. "This is a dark story," said he calmly, "and it would behoove me
as a gentleman to succor this distressed lady, did I but know how. Tell me
what I can do now, and I will do it."
"Your health!" cried one. "You speak like a true knight."
"And he looks the man to keep his word, I'll warrant him," spoke another.
"He does," said Perry, shaking his head; "but if anything could have been
done, sir, be sure we would have done it: but all our armed men are
scattered up and down the country, each taking care, as is natural, of his
own cattle and his own women.
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