"
"Is that all you know of him?" said Sir Ralph.
"What more should I know of him?" said young Gamwell.
"Then I can tell you," said Sir Ralph, "he is the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon,
on whose head is set so large a price."
"Ay, is he?" said young Gamwell, in the same careless manner.
"He were a prize worth the taking," said Sir Ralph.
"No doubt," said young Gamwell.
"How think you?" said Sir Ralph: "are the foresters his adherents?"
"I cannot say," said young Gamwell.
"Is your peasantry loyal and well-disposed?" said Sir Ralph.
"Passing loyal," said young Gamwell.
"If I should call on them in the king's name," said Sir Ralph,
"think you they would aid and assist?"
"Most likely they would," said young Gamwell, "one side or the other."
"Ay, but which side?" said the knight.
"That remains to be tried," said young Gamwell.
"I have King Henry's commission," said the knight, "to apprehend this
earl that was. How would you advise me to act, being, as you see,
without attendant force?"
"I would advise you," said young Gamwell, "to take yourself off without delay,
unless you would relish the taste of a volley of arrows, a shower of stones,
and a hailstorm of cudgel-blows, which would not be turned aside by a God
save King Henry."
Sir Ralph's squire no sooner heard this, and saw by the looks
of the speaker that he was not likely to prove a false prophet,
than he clapped spurs to his horse and galloped off with might
and main.
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