"
"Hadst asked me in the name of charity I would have given
freely," cried Alleyne. "As it stands, not one farthing shall
you have with my free will, and when I see my brother, the
Socman of Minstead, he will raise hue and cry from vill to vill,
from hundred to hundred, until you are taken as a common robber
and a scourge to the country."
The outlaw sank his club. "The Socman's brother!" he gasped.
"Now, by the keys of Peter! I had rather that hand withered and
tongue was palsied ere I had struck or miscalled you. If you are
the Socman's brother you are one of the right side, I warrant,
for all your clerkly dress."
"His brother I am," said Alleyne. "But if I were not, is that
reason why you should molest me on the king's ground?"
"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried the
serf passionately. "Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall
repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the
Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes."
"And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne.
"But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me
the shortest path to my brother's house.
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