"Bracy," said the Knight, "thou art free—depart. He whose prisoner thou art scorns to take mean revenge for what is passed. But beware of the future, lest a worse thing befal thee—Maurice de Bracy, I say beware!"
De Bracy bowed low and in silence, and was about to withdraw, when the yeomen burst at once into a shout of execration and derision. The proud knight instantly stopped, turned back, folded his arms, drew up his form to its full height, and exclaimed, "Peace, ye yelping curs! who open upon a cry which ye followed not when the stag was at bay—De Bracy scorns your censure as he would disdain your applause. To your brakes and caves, ye outlawed thieves! and be silent when aught knightly or noble is but spoken within a league of your fox-earths."
This ill-timed defiance might have procured for De Bracy a volley of arrows, but for the hasty interference of the outlaw Chief. Meanwhile the knight caught a horse by the rein, for several which had been taken in the stables of Front-de-Bœuf stood accoutred around, and were a va-
