"
"You are the Socman of Minstead?"
"That am I; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of
Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of Aluric,
whose forefathers held the white-horse banner at the fatal fight
where our shield was broken and our sword shivered. I tell you,
clerk, that my folk held this land from Bramshaw Wood to the
Ringwood road; and, by the soul of my father! it will be a
strange thing if I am to be bearded upon the little that is left
of it. Begone, I say, and meddle not with my affair."
"If you leave me now," whispered the woman, "then shame forever
upon your manhood."
"Surely, sir," said Alleyne, speaking in as persuasive and
soothing a way as he could, "if your birth is gentle, there is
the more reason that your manners should be gentle too. I am
well persuaded that you did but jest with this lady, and that you
will now permit her to leave your land either alone or with me as
a guide, if she should need one, through the wood. As to birth,
it does not become me to boast, and there is sooth in what you
say as to the unworthiness of clerks, but it is none the less
true that I am as well born as you.
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