Through the mist of the far past of English history there looms up
before our vision a notable figure, that of Hereward the Wake, the "last
of the Saxons," as he has been appropriately called, a hero of romance
perhaps more than of history, but in some respects the noblest warrior
who fought for Saxon England against the Normans. His story is a fabric
in which threads of fact and fancy seem equally interwoven; of much of
his life, indeed, we are ignorant, and tradition has surrounded this
part of his biography with tales of largely imaginary deeds; but he is a
character of history as well as of folk lore, and his true story is full
of the richest elements of romance. It is this noteworthy hero of old
England with whom we have now to deal.

No one can be sure where Hereward was born, though most probably the
county of Lincolnshire may claim the honor. We are told that he was heir
to the lordship of Bourne, in that county. Tradition--for we have not
yet reached the borders of fact--says that he was a wild and unruly
youth, disrespectful to the clergy, disobedient to his parents, and so
generally unmanageable that in the end his father banished him from his
home.

Little was the truculent lad troubled by this. He had in him the spirit
of a wanderer and outlaw, but was one fitted to make his mark wherever
his feet should fall. In Scotland, while still a boy, he killed,
single-handed, a great bear,--a feat highly considered in those days
when all battles with man and beast were hand to hand. Next we hear of
him in Cornwall, one of whose race of giants Hereward found reserved for
his prowess. This was a fellow of mighty limb and boastful tongue, vast
in strength and terrible in war, as his own tale ran. Hereward fought