Thenceforth the dust and blood of that unruly epoch passed them by. They dwelt apart from alarms in the green forest where their love began.

Two old men in the meanwhile enjoyed pensions in great prosperity and peace, and with perhaps a superfluity of ale and wine, in Tunstall hamlet. One had been all his life a shipman, and continued to the last to lament his man Tom. The other, who had been a bit of everything, turned in the end towards piety, and made a most religious death under the name of Brother Honestus in the neighbouring abbey. So Lawless had his will, and died a friar.

  1. At the date of this story, Richard Crookback could not have been created Duke of Gloucester; but for clearness, with the reader’s leave, he shall so be called.
  2. [1]
  3. Richard Crookback would have been really far younger at this date.
  4. [2]
  5. Technically, the term “lance” included a not quite certain number of foot soldiers attached to the man-at-arms.
  6. [3]
[Transcriber’s Note]

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and hyphenation made consistent within the text. Common contractions have been closed up (e.g. ’tis rather than ’t is). Where this would lead to two apostrophes together, the space has been retained (e.g. y’ ’ave). All other spelling and punctuation has been left as in the original text.

All illustrations in the text are marked with the caption “Copyright by Charles Scribner’s Sons.” For ease of reading, this has been removed and placed here. Where full-page illustrations fall within a paragraph, they have been moved to the end of the preceding paragraph.

This text contains three footnotes. To avoid interrupting the flow of the narrative, these have been moved to the end of the text. The footnote markers are internal links.

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