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 easily hooked is not the best worth dishing. But yonder are the towers of Arlingford."

The little friar stopped. He seemed suddenly struck with an awful thought, which caused a momentary pallescence in his rosy complexion and after a brief hesitation, he turned his galloway, and told his companions he should give them good day.

"Why, what is in the wind now, Brother Peter?" said Friar Michael.

"The lady Matilda," said the little friar, "can draw the long-bow. She must bear no good will to Sir Ralph, and if she should espy him from her tower, she may testify her recognition with a cloth-yard shaft. She is not so infallible a markswoman, but that she might shoot at a crow and kill a pigeon. She might peradventure miss the knight, and hit me, who never did her any harm."