"
And the first thing that went ill was this. He was riding through the
Bruneswald, and behind him Geri, Wenoch, and Matelgar, these three. And
there met him in an open glade a knight, the biggest man he had ever seen,
on the biggest horse, and five knights behind him. He was an Englishman,
and not a Frenchman, by his dress; and Hereward spoke courteously enough
to him. But who he was, and what his business was in the Bruneswald,
Hereward thought that he had a right to ask.
"Tell me who thou art, who askest, before I tell thee who I am who am
asked, riding here on common land," quoth the knight, surlily enough.
"I am Hereward, without whose leave no man has ridden the Bruneswald for
many a day."
"And I am Letwold the Englishman, who rides whither he will in merry
England, without care for any Frenchman upon earth."
"Frenchman? Why callest thou me Frenchman, man? I am Hereward."
"Then thou art, if tales be true, as French as Ivo Taillebois. I hear that
thou hast left thy true lady, like a fool and a churl, and goest to
London, or Winchester, or the nether pit,--I care not which,--to make thy
peace with the Mamzer."
The man was a surly brute: but what he said was so true, that Hereward's
wrath arose. He had promised Torfrida many a time, never to quarrel with
an Englishman, but to endure all things.
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