for life; and two of his brethren also had he slain, and
made the said Jack an outlaw, and he all sackless. In the
Uttermost March we deem that he had a case against the
baron."

"Hah!" said Simon. "Is this next tale true, that this Jack
o' the Tofts slew a good knight before the altar, so that
the priest's mass-hackle was all wet with his blood, whereas
the said priest was in the act of putting the holy body into
the open mouth of the said knight?"

Christopher said eagerly: "True was it, by the Rood! and
well was it done, for that same Sir Raoul was an ugly
traitor, who had knelt down where he died to wed the Body of
the Lord to a foul lie in his mouth; whereas the man who
knelt beside him he had trained to his destruction, and was
even then doing the first deal of his treason by forswearing
him there."

"And that man who knelt with him there," said Simon, "what
betid to him?"

Said Christopher: "He went out of the church with Jack of
the Tofts that minute of the stroke; and to the Tofts he
went with him, and abode with him freely: and a valiant man
he was...and is."

"Hah!" said Simon again. "And then there is this: that the
seven sons of Jack of the Tofts bore off perforce four fair
maidens of gentle blood from the castle wherein they dwelt,