Wot ye of the fat incomings of the prior of Lenton?" inquired he, looking around for an

answer.

"Two tuns of wine annually, for the celebration of mass, my Liege," answered the monk, who was on the look-out for preferment, "five hundred marks by the year for freeing the military vassals of the priory—the tenths of all produce, the

Enough," said the king, waving his hand peremptorily; " and ought, assuredly, to have been guerdon sufficient to have bound him to our interests. But no matter; their hives shall be explored, and themselves expelled from the plenty they have so ill deserved. By the soul of my father! they shall know with whom they have to deal. And that proud cardinal hath, I trow, retreated with these hornets to their foreign nest, where they may more securely hatch treason. But let them look to it. Servants of the church although they be, I will seize upon their kindred for hostages; and, by the thunder of heaven! have them trodden to death by my war-horses, if they break faith so widely with me."

"The cardinal, my liege," said the insinu

ating monk, "yet abideth at the priory hard by, and hath, as I am given to understand, visited several of the thorpes and hamlets adjacent, and of his own authority forbidden all May-games and pastoral sports, of whatsoever kind, under penalty of threatened excommunication."

"I would to God, that the hand of some one would reach to his very He paused, and his countenance became pale as death, for just then his eye fell upon a richly illuminated volume, the plunder of some neighbouring abbey.

The book, which was written in Saxon, and entitled, "Examples of True Penance," had fallen open, and revealed a gaudy illustration, where his father, Henry the Second, was pictured as kneeling before the shrine of Thomas-à-Becket, while two grim monks were lashing his naked shoulders. The design did not lack crimson gashes, nor was there any want of tears, which, when compared with the size of the royal penitent's head, together with their colour, resembled golden-pippins. Whether the holy father who had laboured over this production was a wag, and had conjured the

kingly tears into golden pieces, thereby indicating the penitential drops which were then most dear to mother church, our story sayeth not.

Sir

Rude, however, as the sketch was, it had the effect of startling the conscience of King John, and the monarch had several times paced the length of the apartment before he again spoke, or deigned to notice any one present. Geoffrey de Marchmont, whose keen eye first caught the object, which had so suddenly disturbed the mind of the king, closed the richly-bound volume, and with a tact, which would do honour to the most tender keeper of a royal conscience, thus directed the conversation into a new channel :

"It were but fitting, my Liege," said the baron, "that some inquiry should be set on foot, and some example made among the verminlike rabble, who have had the audacity to molest your servants while issuing the royal proclamation. For, by my knighthood! an' these tumults are not quelled, it will be unsafe to venture abroad."

"Let the ringleaders swing on the highest oaks in Sherwood," answered the king, "with

out either hearing or trial, as a terror to the remnant of this scum of mankind."

Just then à messenger entered, and making a low genuflection, said, "Several of the forestrangers wait without, and crave leave to bring before your majesty the prisoner now in their keeping, who hath within this hour, before their own eyes, slain the hart-royal proclaimed."

"Let him be hung without delay," said the savage king; "we will hear their tale anon; meantime, let the audacious wretch be led to instant execution. Marry, my vengeance hath at last alighted upon a right mark; lead him to death without delay."

"Were it not better, my liege," said De Marchmont, "that he were allowed fair trial before the court of Eyre, where his sentence will be given publicly, and our names suffer not a jot from doing such an act of justice? Such an example might do somewhat towards humbling the arrogance of the peasantry."

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"We will first see who hath had the daring to do such a deed," said the king. Bring in the knave, that we may behold him. By the Holy Virgin! he must needs show a bold front who hath done this act, and setteth but little

store, I trow, by either life or limb. Ah! In God's name, can this be the very Saxon who, but two days agone, made such a bold stand in our own presence?" exclaimed he, lifting up his eyes in astonishment as Hereward appeared.

"The same, my liege," answered De Marchmont, casting a brutal and malicious smile of triumph on the prisoner as he spoke. "I rightly deemed how well he would deserve the kindness which your majesty extended towards him. Witness the present deed.

"False-hearted Norman !" exclaimed Hereward, extricating his arm, by a sudden jerk from the grasp of one of the keepers who held him, and shaking his clenched fist in defiance at the baron; my deed is one which I am not ashamed to confess, knowing that it was not willingly done; but thine was cowardly and devilish, and but became a robber and a villain like thyself. Nay, thou mayest knit thy brows; I fear thee not. I tell thee boldly before this assembly, that thou didst order thy followers to waylay me when last I returned from this place, with the grant by which I hold my possessions. Nay, more; I tell thee that one of them was left dead on the spot, and another yet lives, and