Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/420

386 'So I read it,' said Sir Nigel. 'Now I pray you to read what is set forth within.'

Alleyne turned to the letter, and, as his eyes rested upon it, his face turned pale, and a cry of surprise and grief burst from his lips.

'What then?' asked the knight, peering at him anxiously. 'There is nought amiss with the Lady Mary or with the Lady Maude?'

'It is my brother—my poor unhappy brother!' cried Alleyne, with his hand to his brow. 'He is dead.'

'By Saint Paul! I have never heard that he had shown so much love for you that you should mourn him so.'

'Yet he was my brother—the only kith or kin that I had upon earth. Mayhap he had cause to be bitter against me, for his land was given to the Abbey for my upbringing. Alas! alas! and I raised my staff against him when last we met! he has been slain—and slain, I fear, amidst crime and violence.'

'Ha!' said Sir Nigel. 'Read on, I pray you.'

'"God be with thee, my honoured lord, and have thee in His holy keeping. The Lady Loring hath asked me to set down in writing what hath befallen at Twynham, and all that concerns the death of thy ill neighbour, the Socman of Minstead. For when ye had left us, this evil man gathered around him all outlaws, villeins, and masterless men, until they were come to such a force that they slew and scattered the king's men who went against them. Then, coming forth from the woods, they laid siege to thy castle, and for two days they girt us in and shot hard against us, with such numbers as were a marvel to see. Yet the Lady Loring held the place stoutly, and on the second day the Socman was slain—by his own men, as some think—so that we were delivered from their hands; for which praise be to all the saints, and more especially to the holy Anselm, upon whose feast it came to pass. The Lady Loring, and the Lady Maude, thy fair daughter, are in good health; and so also am I, save for an imposthume of the toe-joint, which hath been sent me for my sins. May all the saints preserve thee!"'