"Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall repay them.

I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes." "And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne.

"But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me the shortest path to my brother's house." The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks.

A minute later came the shaggy deer-hounds, a dozen or fourteen of them, running on a hot scent, with nose to earth and tail in air.

As they streamed past the silent forest around broke suddenly into loud life, with galloping of hoofs, crackling of brushwood, and the short, sharp cries of the hunters.