mule and carry some few presents for his people to Bosham, and
after he was gone we had a quiet feasting in our hall until the
light was gone. And even as our feasting ended there came in a
swineherd from the forest with word that from the northward there
came a strong band of armed men through the forest, and he held it
right that my father should be warned thereof, for he feared they
were some banded outlaws, seeing that there was peace in the land.
That was no unlikely thing at all, for our forests shelter many,
and game being plentiful they live there well enough, if not
altogether at ease. As a rule they gave little trouble to us, and
at times in the winter we would even have men who were said to be
outlaws from far off working in the woods for us.

Yet now and then some leader would rise among them and gather them
into bands which waxed bold to harry cattle and even houses, so
that there might be truth in what the swineherd told. Nevertheless
my father thought of little danger but to the herds, and so had
them driven into the sheds from the home fields, and set the men
their watches as he had more than once done before in like alarms.

Presently I was awakened, for I had gone to rest before the message
came, by the hoarse call of a horn and the savage barking of the
dogs. I heard the hall doors shut and open once or twice as men
passed in and out, and in the hall was the rattle of weapons as the
men took them from their places on the walls, but I heard no voices
raised more than usual. Then I got out of my bed and tried to open
the sliding doors that would let me out on the high place from my
father's chamber, where I always slept now, but I could not move
them. So I went back to my place and listened.