He, being sworn, was asked;
"Know you the person at the bar; and, if ay, what is his name?"
"I know him well; his name is Kenric; his condition, so far as I know, a freeman, and verdurer to Sir Yvo de Taillebois."
"When did you see him first, to know him?"
"In July last, when my Lord of Taillebois returned from Yorkshire, and brought him along in his train."
"Have you seen him in the mean time; and, if ay, how often."
"Almost daily. He is one of our best foresters, and we rarely hunt or hawk without him."
"Can you name any one day, in particular, when you saw the person at the bar, between July and October, to know him?"
"I can. On the 12th day of last September, at eight o'clock in the evening, we being then at supper, Kenric came into the hall, by permission, to bring tidings that he had tracked the great mouse-colored hart-royal, which has been known in the dales this hundred years, into a deep dingle at the head of Yewdale, and that he was laid up for the night. On the 13th, we were astir before day, and Kenric led us to the lair; and we hunted that hart all day long on the 13th, and killed him at sunset on the skirts of Skiddaw. We had to pass the night on the mountain, and I well remember how Kenric was the best man in collecting firing and making all things comfortable for the night, it being cold, and a keen white frost."
Being cross-examined—"I know it was on the 12th that he brought the tidings, because my rents fall due on that day at Rydal Manor, and I had ridden over to collect them, and returned home somewhat late for supper, and had just sat down to table, very hungry, when he came in with the news of the great hart-royal; and that spoiled my supper, for the thought of killing that hart on the morrow took away all my appetite."