But with your leave I will add that we were overcome not by men, but by
a devil"--and he nodded toward Grey Dick--"since no one who is only
man can have such hellish skill in archery as we saw yesterday, and now
again this morning. Moreover," he went on, contemplating Dick's ashen
hair and cold eyes set wide apart in the rocky face, like to those of a
Suffolk horse, "the man's air shows that he is in league with Satan."
"I'll not render your words into our English talk, Sir Pierre," replied
Hugh, "lest he of whom you speak should take them amiss and send you
where you might learn them false. For know, had he been what you
say, the arrow that lies in your horse's heart would have nailed the
breastplate to your own. Now take a message from me to your lord, Sir
Edmund Acour, the traitor. Tell him that I shall return ere long, and
that if he should dare to attempt ill toward the Lady Eve, who is my
betrothed, or toward my father and brethren, or any of my House, I
promise, in Grey Dick's name and my own, to kill him or those who may
aid him as I would kill a forest wolf that had slunk into my sheepfold.
Farewell! There is bracken and furze yonder where you may lie warm till
some pass your way. Mount, men!"
So they rode forward, bearing all the Clavering weapons with them, which
a mile or two further on Grey Dick hid in an empty fox's earth where
he knew he could find them again.
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