'What did you do to them?' said Dan, as they repassed Ridley's terrible tree.
'That!' Sir Richard jerked his head toward the dangling owls.
'Not he,' said Puck. 'There was never enough brute Norman in you to hang a man for taking a buck.'
'I--I cannot abide to hear their widows screech. But why am I on horseback while you are afoot?' He dismounted lightly, tapped Swallow on the chest, so that the wise thing backed instead of turning in the narrow ride, and put himself at the head of the little procession. He walked as though all the woods belonged to him. 'I have often told my friends,' he went on, 'that Red William the King was not the only Norman found dead in a forest while he hunted.'
'Yes,' said Puck, kicking a clump of red toadstools off a dead log.
'For example, there was a knight new from Normandy,' Sir Richard went on, 'to whom Henry our King granted a manor in Kent near by. He chose to hang his forester's son the day before a deer-hunt that he gave to pleasure the King.'
'Now when would that be?' said Puck, and scratched an ear thoughtfully.
'The summer of the year King Henry broke his brother Robert of Normandy at Tenchebrai fight. Our ships were even then at Pevensey loading for the war.'
'What happened to the knight?' Dan asked.
'They found him pinned to an ash, three arrows through his leather coat. _I_ should have worn mail that day.'
'And did you see him all bloody?' Dan continued.
'Nay, I was with De Aquila at Pevensey, counting horse-shoes, and arrow sheaves, and ale-barrels into the holds of the ships. The army only waited for our King to lead them against Robert in Normandy, but he sent word to De Aquila that he would hunt with him here before he set out for France.'
'Why did the King want to hunt so particularly?' Una demanded.
'If he had gone straight to France after the Kentish knight was killed, men would have said he feared being slain like the knight. It was his duty to show himself debonair to his English people as it was De Aquila's duty to see that he took no harm while he did it. But it was a great burden! De Aquila, Hugh, and I ceased work on the ships, and scoured all the Honour of the Eagle--all De Aquila's lands--to make a fit, and, above all, a safe sport for our King. Look!'