So the end was that he ran away once more and joined himself to the Robbers of Black Notley, and was taken in such favour by the captain of the band that he is half a captain himself; and many is the time he has ridden through our village, robbing his old neighbours, and doing more harm in a night than months of hard work will put right; and often when I have chanced to meet him he has given me a look that has frozen the blood in my veins.

I have always lived in fear of him all my life; but I was never in such peril before today." "Peril enough, in all sooth," said the traveller.

"How came it, pretty maiden, that you chanced to be all alone in the wood so near to the haunts of the robbers ?" "Nay, I was far enough away from their regular haunts.

I had but come a short cut through the wood to see a sick neighbour, and I tarried beside her longer than I well knew.

I will never do the like again, but I have been used from childhood to roam these forest paths unharmed.