Then turned David to Christopher, and said: “Thy pardon, little King, that we have waked thee so early; but we wotted not that thou hadst been amongst the wood-women; and, sooth to say, my lad, we had little ease till we found thee, after we came home and saw all those hoof-marks yonder.”
“Yea,” said Gilbert, “if we had lost thee we had been finely holpen up, for we could neither have gone back to the Tofts nor into the kingdom: for I think my father would have hanged us if we had come back with a ‘By the way, Christopher is slain.’ But tell us, lad, what hath befallen thee with yonder sweetling?”
“Yea, tell us,” said David, “and sit down here betwixt us, with thy back to the hazel-thicket, or we shall get no tale out of thee—tush, man, Joanna will bring her back, and that right soon, I
