maybe there to see."

A few minutes later, having changed his blue doublet for one of more
sober and less noticeable colour, Cuthbert started for the great forest,
which then stretched to within a mile of Erstwood. In those days a large
part of the country was covered with forest, and the policy of the
Normans in preserving these woods for the chase, tended to prevent the
increase of cultivation.

The farms and cultivated lands were all held by Saxons, who although
nominally handed over to the nobles to whom William and his successors
had given the fiefs, saw but little of their Norman masters. These stood,
indeed, much in the position in which landlords stand to their tenants,
payment being made, for the most part, in produce. At the edge of the
wood the trees grew comparatively far apart, but as Cuthbert proceeded
farther into its recesses, the trees in the virgin forest stood thick and
close together. Here and there open glades ran across each other, and in
these his sharp eye, accustomed to the forest, could often see the stags
starting away at the sound of his footsteps.

It was a full hour's journey before Cuthbert reached the point for
which he was bound. Here, in an open space, probably cleared by a storm
ages before, and overshadowed by giant trees, was a group of men of all
ages and appearances. Some were occupied in stripping the skin off a
buck which hung from the bough of one of the trees. Others were
roasting portions of the carcass of another deer. A few sat apart, some
talking, others busy in making arrows, while a few lay asleep on the
greensward. As Cuthbert entered the clearing, several of the party rose
to their feet.