greatly to the cost of their services, and indeed would be gained in the
additional value of their labour.

"When men are kept as serfs, they work as serfs--I mean to say they work
unwillingly and slowly, while, had they the sense of being free, and of
having the same rights as others, they would labour more cheerfully.
Moreover, it would double the strength of the force that the king and his
nobles could place in the field. I am not speaking upon my own judgment,
but from what I have learned from my father."

They had no sudden attack to fear from lurking foes, for an act of Edward
the First was still in force, by which every highway leading from one
market-town to another was always to be kept clear, for two hundred feet
on each side, of every ditch, tree, or bush in which a man might lurk to
do harm; while, as any ill that happened to travellers was made payable by
the township in which it occurred, there was a strong personal interest on
the part of the inhabitants to suppress plundering bands in their
neighbourhood. Both Edgar and Albert rode in partial armour, with steel
caps and breast-pieces, it being an ordinance that all of gentle blood
when travelling should do so, and they carried swords by their sides, and
light axes at their saddle-bows.

It was but a little past three o'clock when they crossed London Bridge and
then made for the Tower, near which Sir Ralph was lodged.




CHAPTER IV