--and Wamba---where is Wamba? Said not some one he had gone forth
with Gurth?"

Oswald replied in the affirmative.

"Ay? why this is better and better! he is carried off too, the
Saxon fool, to serve the Norman lord. Fools are we all indeed
that serve them, and fitter subjects for their scorn and
laughter, than if we were born with but half our wits. But I
will be avenged," he added, starting from his chair in impatience
at the supposed injury, and catching hold of his boar-spear; "I
will go with my complaint to the great council; I have friends,
I have followers---man to man will I appeal the Norman to the
lists; let him come in his plate and his mail, and all that can
render cowardice bold; I have sent such a javelin as this through
a stronger fence than three of their war shields!---Haply they
think me old; but they shall find, alone and childless as I am,
the blood of Hereward is in the veins of Cedric.---Ah, Wilfred,
Wilfred!" he exclaimed in a lower tone, "couldst thou have ruled
thine unreasonable passion, thy father had not been left in his
age like the solitary oak that throws out its shattered and
unprotected branches against the full sweep of the tempest!" The
reflection seemed to conjure into sadness his irritated feelings.
Replacing his javelin, he resumed his seat, bent his looks
downward, and appeared to be absorbed in melancholy reflection.

From his musing, Cedric was suddenly awakened by the blast of a
horn, which was replied to by the clamorous yells and barking of
all the dogs in the hall, and some twenty or thirty which were
quartered in other parts of the building. It cost some exercise