‘The boy? Oh, he was an imp. He turned the keep doors out of dortoirs while we had him. He sang foul songs, learned in the Barons’ camps—poor fool; he set the hounds fighting in hall; he lit the rushes to drive out, as he said, the fleas; he drew his dagger on Jehan, who threw him down the stairway for it; and he rode his horse through crops and among sheep. But when we had beaten him, and showed him wolf and deer, he followed us old men like a young, eager hound, and called us “uncle.” His father came the summer’s end to take him away, but the boy had no lust to go, because of the otter-hunting, and he stayed on till the fox-hunting. I gave him a bittern’s claw to bring him good luck at shooting. An imp, if ever there was!’ ‘And what happened to Gilbert?’ said Dan. ‘Not even a whipping. De Aquila said he would sooner a clerk, however false, that knew the Manor-roll than a fool, however true, that must be taught his work afresh. Moreover, after that night I think Gilbert loved as much as he feared De Aquila. At least he would not leave us—not even when Vivian, the King’s Clerk, would have made him Sacristan of Battle Abbey. A false fellow, but, in his fashion, bold.’ ‘Did Robert ever land in Pevensey after all?’ Dan went on. ‘We guarded the coast too well while Henry was fighting his Barons; and three or four years later, when England had peace, Henry crossed to Normandy and showed his brother some work at Tenchebrai that cured Robert of fighting. Many of Henry’s men sailed from Pevensey to that war. Fulke came, I remember, and we all four lay in the little chamber once again, and drank together. De Aquila was right. One should not judge men. Fulke was merry. Yes, always merry—with a catch in his breath.’ ‘And what did you do afterwards?’ said Una. ‘We talked together of times past. That is all men can do when they grow old, little maid.’ The bell for tea rang faintly across the meadows. Dan lay in the bows of the _Golden Hind_; Una in the stern, the book of verses open in her lap, was reading from ‘The Slave’s Dream’:— ‘Again in the mist and shadow of sleep He saw his native land.’ ‘I don’t know when you began that,’ said Dan, sleepily. On the middle thwart of the boat, beside Una’s sun-bonnet, lay an Oak leaf, an Ash leaf, and a Thorn leaf, that must have dropped down from the trees above; and the brook giggled as though it had just seen some joke. THE RUNES ON WELAND’S SWORD _A Smith makes me_ _To betray my Man_ _In my first fight._ _To gather Gold_ _At the world’s end_ _I am sent._ _The Gold I gather_ _Comes into England_ _Out of deep Water._ _Like a shining Fish_ _Then it descends_ _Into deep Water._ _It is not given_ _For goods or gear._ _But for The Thing_ _The Gold I gather_ _A King covets_ _For an ill use._ _The Gold I gather_ _Is drawn up_ _Out of deep Water._ _Like a shining Fish_ _Then it descends_ _Into deep Water._