“They would not have harmed thee, not even they, had they known.”
“But you see they did not know, and all was fish that came to their nets. Martin, don’t thou ever think of them.”
“Hubert, thou hadst better go, and come back presently,” whispered the chaplain, who felt that there were certain circumstances of which the boy might be better left ignorant, which nearly concerned his companion.
“Nay,” said Martin, “there are no secrets between us. He knows mine. I know his.”
“But no one else, I trust,” said the earl, who remembered a certain prohibition.
“No, my lord, only Hubert. He already knew so much, I was forced to tell him all.”
“Then thou hast not forgotten thy kindred in the greenwood?”
“I can never forget my poor mother.”
“Thou hast already told me all that thou dost know, and that thy fathers once owned Michelham.”
“So the outlaws said, the merrie men of the wood. Oh if my father had but lived.”