The king had rewarded his early fealty by a grant of lands and a fine manor near to St.
Albans, whither he had removed his wife and family, so as to be within easy reach of them at such times as he was summoned by the king to Westminster.

The atmosphere of home was dearer to him than that of courts, and he was no longer away from his own house than his duty to his king obliged him to be.

But he had been much engaged by public duties of late, and the holiday he had promised himself had been long in coming.

It had been a promise of some standing to his two elder sons, Edward and Paul, that he would take them some day to visit the spots which he talked of when they climbed upon his knee after his day's work was done to beg for the story of "the little prince," as they still called him.

Paul himself was eager again to visit those familiar haunts, and see if any of those who had befriended the homeless wanderer were living still, and would recognize the bronzed and prosperous knight of today.
And now they were entering a familiar tract; and the father told his boys to keep their eyes well open, for the village of Much Waltham could not be far off and every pathway in this part of the forest had been traversed by him and the prince in the days that had gone by.
"I hear the sound of hammering," cried the younger Paul in great excitement soon.