Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/52

28 written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were no officers to enforce it? As it fell out, however, he had that very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern was the grip of the English law when it did happen to seize the offender.

A mile or so out upon the moor the road takes a very sudden dip into a hollow, with a peat-coloured stream running swiftly down the centre of it. To the right of this stood, and stands to this day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a bristle of heather and bracken. Alleyne was plodding down the slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a stick. When she reached the edge of the stream she stood helpless, looking to right and to left for some ford. Where the path ran down a great stone had been fixed in the centre of the brook, but it was too far from the bank for her aged and uncertain feet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she drew back, until at last, giving it up in despair, she sat herself down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily. There she still sat when Alleyne reached the crossing.

'Come, mother,' quoth he, 'it is not so very perilous a passage.'

'Alas! good youth,' she answered, 'I have a humour in the eyes, and though I can see that there is a stone there, I can by no means be sure as to where it lies.'

'That is easily amended,' said he cheerily, and picking her lightly up, for she was much worn with time, he passed across with her. He could not but observe, however, that as he placed her down her knees seemed to fail her, and she could scarcely prop herself up with her staff.

'You are weak, mother,' said he. 'Hast journeyed far I wot.'

'From Wiltshire, friend,' said she, in a quavering voice; 'three days have I been on the road. I go to my son, who is one of the king's regarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said that he would care for me in mine old age.'