"I may have my father's sword, which hangs over his tomb, may I not?"
"Silly boy, what could one do against a score? Nay, thou must go and hide for the present in the forest--thou rememberest 'Elfwyn's Grange'?"
"Where my great grandfather hid from the Danes? Yes, many a time have I gone there to shoot wild fowl, while my poor father was alive."
"And thou knowest the buildings in the midst of the firm ground?"
"Well."
"Thou hast never told thy Norman companions about them?"
"Never! they one and all think the morass a mere desert, a continuous swamp."
"So much the better, my dear son, for more than half the poor folk who have deserted the village are there, and Father Kenelm will take thee to them, for he knoweth the way, ministering to them weekly as he does."
"But why may I not stay here?"
"I dare not keep thee, dear child; I fear some plot against thy life; nay, the morass is the only safe place for thee till we can communicate with the bishop, who has once befriended thee and may do so again."