said. "How if they catch thee with an arrow as they caught Fleetfoot?
Thou mightest find no castle then to give thee shelter, no leech to
salve thy wound."

"For thee, because of thy kindness, I will risk that," declared Hugo,
after a pause.

Lady De Aldithely put up her hand. "Hush!" she said. "Speak no more at
present to me, and nothing on the subject at any time to any but me. I
hear footsteps."

The footsteps, bounding and light, drew nearer, and presently Josceline
looked in at the door. "Come, Hugo!" he cried. "Let us away to the
tilt-yard and do our exercise."

Josceline was already an esquire, and very diligent in the exercises
required of an esquire as a part of his training for knighthood. But
not more diligent than Hugo had been during his stay at the castle. For
Hugo felt himself at a disadvantage on account of having been bred up
at the priory, and was eager to make up for his shortcomings. In all
their practice Robert Sadler, one of the men-at-arms, was present. And
both boys liked him very well. He was not a young man, being some sixty
years old, and gray and withered. He was of Irish parentage, and short
in stature; and he had a tongue to which falsehood was not so much a
stranger as the truth. He was also as inquisitive as a magpie, and
ready to put his own ignorant construction on all that he saw and
heard. The two boys, however, had never stopped to think of his
character. He was always praising their performances in the tilt-yard,
and always deferring to them, so that they regarded him very favorably
and were quite ready to abide by his judgment. To-day he was waiting