When such men, who
are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the
source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have
wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing,
for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. High
and strong the chateaux, lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but
God help the seigneur and his lady when the men of the brushwood
set their hands to the work of revenge!
Through such country did the party ride for eight or it might be
nine miles, until the sun began to slope down in the west and
their shadows to stream down the road in front of them. Wary and
careful they must be, with watchful eyes to the right and the
left, for this was no man's land, and their only passports were
those which hung from their belts. Frenchmen and Englishmen,
Gascon and Provencal, Brabanter, Tardvenu, Scorcher, Flayer, and
Free Companion, wandered and struggled over the whole of this
accursed district. So bare and cheerless was the outlook, and so
few and poor the dwellings, that Sir Nigel began to have fears as
to whether he might find food and quarters for his little troop.
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