See you, lady, he is a stripling that I took up off the roadside out
of mere charity, and for the love of Heaven--a mere foundling as you
may say, and this is the way he presumes!'

'A foundling, sayest thou?' said Anne, unable to resist teasing him a
little, and trying to gratify her own curiosity.

'Ay, you may say so! There's a whole sort of these orphans, after
all the bad luck to the land, to be picked up on every wayside.'

'On Towton Moor, mayhap,' said Anne demurely, as she saw her surly
guide start. But he was equal to the occasion, and answered:

'Ay, ay, Towton Moor; 'twas shame to see such bloody work; and there
were motherless and fatherless children, stray lambs, to be met with,
weeping their little hearts out, and starving all around unless some
good Christian took pity on them.'

'Was Hal one of these?' asked Lady Anne.

'I tell you, lady, I looked into a church that was full of weeping
and wailing folk, women and children in deadly fear of the cruel,
bloody-minded York folk, and the Lord of March that is himself King
Edward now, a murrain on him!'

'Don't let those folk hear you say so!' laughed Lady Anne. 'They
would think nothing of hauling thee off for a black traitor, or
hanging thee up on the first tree stout enough to bear thee.'

She said it half mischievously, but the only effect was a grunt, and