“Heed her not, masters. Could a maiden do such a thing? She knows not of what she speaks.”
“Nay; give heed to me, I beseech you,” cried Francis, but the lad interrupted her.
“Permit it to be as I have said, mistress. If there be penalty, ’twere meeter for me to suffer it than for thee. Withdraw, I beseech you.”
“The boy is right,” said Hugh Greville. “It is no place for thee, Francis. I will speak to thy father concerning the matter. Meantime we can serve no good purpose here. Come!”
“No, no,” cried the girl trying vainly to make the foresters attend her. “’Twas I who killed the deer. It was not this lad.”
But the verderers paying no further attention to her words busied themselves about the cutting up of the deer. With a burst of angry tears Francis reluctantly permitted the tutor to lead her away.
While fools avoid one error they fall into the opposite one.