light-brown hair streaming behind him, as he ran forward flourishing
a bow in his hand, and crying out, "I hit him, I hit him! Dame
Astrida, do you hear? 'Tis a stag of ten branches, and I hit him in
the neck."

"You! my Lord Richard! you killed him?"

"Oh, no, I only struck him. It was Osmond's shaft that took him in
the eye, and--Look you, Fru Astrida, he came thus through the wood,
and I stood here, it might be, under the great elm with my bow thus"-
-And Richard was beginning to act over again the whole scene of the
deer-hunt, but Fru, that is to say, Lady Astrida, was too busy to
listen, and broke in with, "Have they brought home the haunch?"

"Yes, Walter is bringing it. I had a long arrow--"

A stout forester was at this instant seen bringing in the venison,
and Dame Astrida hastened to meet it, and gave directions, little
Richard following her all the way, and talking as eagerly as if she
was attending to him, showing how he shot, how Osmond shot, how the
deer bounded, and how it fell, and then counting the branches of its
antlers, always ending with, "This is something to tell my father.
Do you think he will come soon?"

In the meantime two men entered the hall, one about fifty, the other,
one or two-and-twenty, both in hunting dresses of plain leather,
crossed by broad embroidered belts, supporting a knife, and a bugle-
horn. The elder was broad-shouldered, sun-burnt, ruddy, and rather
stern-looking; the younger, who was also the taller, was slightly
made, and very active, with a bright keen grey eye, and merry smile.