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Scarce a mile without the walls of the fair city of Belsaye h upon a hill for all the world to see; froed ere now, had writhed and kicked their lives away and rotted there in coer of my lord Duke Ivo

Day in, day out, fro of dooht should warn rebellious townsfolk to dutiful sub horror, whose loathsoues ainst hts who, by his pleasure, held their fiefs with rights of justice, the high, the middle and the low

Day in, day out, thebrows and, by night, many a clenched hand was shaken andof dooht theFriar Martin's bony outstretched finger, Beltane of a sudden espied afar the Duke's great gallows, rising grisly and stark against theyet within the shade of the woods, Beltane stared fierce-eyed, the while Giles, with Roger at his elbow, pointed out divers shapes that dangled high in air, at sight of which the friar knelt with bowed head and lips that , muttered in his beard

"Messire," said the archer, ", and we but five all told!"

"I have mine axe!" quoth Walkyn

"Had we fifty axes we scarce should bring it down ere dawn: ht is very still and sounds carry far--"

"Nathless," quoth Roger, "to-night we surely shall destroy it--my lord hath said so"

"Aye--but how?" questioned Giles "In Belsaye is that pale fox Sir Gui of Allerdale with many trusty men-at-arms to hold the town for Black Ivo and teach Belsaye its duty: how allows 'neath the very beards of erkin?"

"Aye," nodded Roger, "that will I--when I have asked , he came and touched Beltane and huallows, Beltane sighed and answered: "There hath been no rain for weeks, look you: the underbrush is dry, methinks, and should burn well!"