literally choked with weeds.

'And as for Gregson--lazy, drunken fellow! Why didn't he set some
village women on? Just see what they've done on my place! Hullo,
here he is! Now I'm in for it!' For he saw a slouching man coming
rapidly towards him from the farmyard, with the evident intention
of waylaying him. The man's shabby, untidy dress and blotched
complexion did not escape Sir Henry's quick eye. 'Seems to have
been making a night of it,' was his inward comment.

'Good-day, Sir Henry,' said the farmer, laying a hand on Chicksands'
bridle, 'I wanted a word with you, sir. I give you fair warning, you
and your Committee, you'll not turn me out without a fight! I was
never given no proper notice--and there are plenty as 'll stand by
me.'

The voice was thick and angry, and the hand shook. Sir Henry drew
his horse away, and the man's hold dropped.

'Of course you had every notice,' said Sir Henry drily.

'I hadn't,' the man persisted. 'If the letters as they talk of were
sent, I never saw 'em. And when the Committee came I was out--on
business. Can't a man be out on his lawful business, Sir Henry,
instead of dancin' attendance on men as know no better than he? The
way this Government is doing things--you might as well live under
the Czar of Russia as in this country. It's no country this for
free men now, Sir Henry.'

'The Czar of Russia has come to grief, my man, for the same reason