soon as the last comer has arrived. Whichever be their quarry, they will
try to fall upon it before the news of their arrival is bruited abroad."

With a wave of his hand to the falconer the boy started. Leaving the
road, and striking across the slightly undulated country dotted here and
there by groups of trees, the lad ran at a brisk trot, without stopping
to halt or breathe, until after half an hour's run he arrived at the
entrance of a building, whose aspect proclaimed it to be the abode of a
Saxon franklin of some importance. It would not be called a castle, but
was rather a fortified house, with a few windows looking without, and
surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge, and capable of sustaining
anything short of a real attack. Erstwood had but lately passed into
Norman hands, and was indeed at present owned by a Saxon. Sir William de
Lance, the father of the lad who is now entering its portals, was a
friend and follower of the Earl of Evesham; and soon after his lord had
married Gweneth, the heiress of all these fair lands--given to him by
the will of the king, to whom by the death of her father she became a
ward--Sir William had married Editha, the daughter and heiress of the
franklin of Erstwood, a cousin and dear friend of the new Countess of
Evesham.

In neither couple could the marriage at first have been called one of
inclination on the part of the ladies, but love came after marriage.
Although the knights and barons of the Norman invasion would, no doubt,
be considered rude and rough in these days of broadcloth and
civilization, yet their manners were gentle and polished by the side of
those of the rough though kindly Saxon franklins; and although the Saxon
maids were doubtless as patriotic as their fathers and mothers, yet the
female mind is greatly led by gentle manners and courteous address.
Thus, then, when bidden or forced to give their hands to the Norman