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"Nay, there can be no difficulty there," said Chandos "Pardieu! a roistering, swaggering dare-devil archer is worth his price on the French border There are two hundred such whobetter than to see you a them"

"I thank you, noble sir, for your offer," said Aylward, "and I had rather follow your banner than oes ever forward, and I have heard enough of the wars to know that there are ss behind Yet, if the Squire will have , for though I was born in the hundred of Easebourne and the rape of Chichester, yet I have grown up and learned to use the longbow in these parts, and as the free son of a free franklin I had rather serve el, "I have told you that I could in no wise reward you for such service"

"If you will but take me to the wars I will see to my oard," said Aylward "Till then I ask for none, save a corner of your table and six feet of your floor, for it is certain that the only reward I would get froe for my back and the stocks for el, froer-bones he trusts the Devil will fly aith hi he raised his hand to his steel cap in salute, slung his great yello over his back, and followed on some paces in the rear of his new master

"Pardieu! I have arrived a la bonne heure," said Chandos "I rode from Windsor and came to your manor house, to find it empty save for a fine old dame, who told me of your troubles From her I walked across to the Abbey, and none too soon, for ith cloth-yard shafts for your body, and bell, book and candle for your soul, it was no very cheerful outlook But here is the very dame herself, if I ure of the Lady Er on her staff, which had ereet thereat building as she heard of the discomfiture of the Abbey court Then she led the way into the hall where the best which she could provide had been laid out for their illustrious guest There was Chandos blood in her own veins, traceable back through the de Greys, de Multons, de Valences, de Montagues and other high and noble strains, so that thethe network of inters, iht be in Back to the Conquest and before it there was not a noble fa and bud of which was not familiar to the Dame Ermyntrude