"Not so much so as you suppose. But with whom were you fighting?"
"Those who fought with me: some outlaws, to all appearance, but they got more than they gave."
"Outlaws!" reiterated the armed horseman with displeasure.
"A rabble led by one who called himself Count Ludwig of Endhoven."
"Ha!" exclaimed the other, while all his followers uttered exclamations expressive of surprise and interest.
"Is it thus," said Gray, "your lords of Gueldres amuse themselves upon the highway?"
"I tell you, messire, that you are in Brabant. So these were Ludwig and his Brabanciones? I would give a thousand guilders for his head! But there was blood upon your sword?"
"I laid Count Ludwig's cheek open from eye to chin."
"Then beware you, messire: he is cruel as a pagan, and revengeful as an Italian; and he will track you and seek you day and night while you are among us, to work you mischief, unless, in the interim, he is broken alive upon the wheel by some burg graf or burgomaster. You are going, you say, to the court of the duke of Gueldres?"
"Where I am not likely to arrive soon if I remain chattering here," replied Gray coldly, as he disliked the inquisitorial manner of his questioner, who laughed and said,—