"You had better have tarried there to fight for the recovery of the Holy

Sepulchre," said the Templar.

"True, Reverend Sir Knight," answered the Palmer, to whom the appearance

of the Templar seemed perfectly familiar; "but when those who are under

oath to recover the holy city, are found travelling at such a distance

from the scene of their duties, can you wonder that a peaceful peasant

like me should decline the task which they have abandoned?"

The Templar would have made an angry reply, but was interrupted by the

Prior, who again expressed his astonishment, that their guide, after

such long absence, should be so perfectly acquainted with the passes of

the forest.

"I was born a native of these parts," answered their guide, and as he

made the reply they stood before the mansion of Cedric;--a low irregular

building, containing several court-yards or enclosures, extending over

a considerable space of ground, and which, though its size argued the

inhabitant to be a person of wealth, differed entirely from the tall,

turretted, and castellated buildings in which the Norman nobility

resided, and which had become the universal style of architecture

throughout England.

Rotherwood was not, however, without defences; no habitation, in

that disturbed period, could have been so, without the risk of being

plundered and burnt before the next morning. A deep fosse, or ditch,

was drawn round the whole building, and filled with water from a

neighbouring stream. A double stockade, or palisade, composed of pointed

beams, which the adjacent forest supplied, defended the outer and inner

bank of the trench. There was an entrance from the west through the

outer stockade, which communicated by a drawbridge, with a similar

opening in the interior defences. Some precautions had been taken to

place those entrances under the protection of projecting angles, by

which they might be flanked in case of need by archers or slingers.

Before this entrance the Templar wound his horn loudly; for the rain,

which had long threatened, began now to descend with great violence.




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