It was a full hour’s journey before Cuthbert reached the point for which he was bound.  Here, in an open space, probably cleared by a storm ages before, and overshadowed by giant trees, was a group of men of all ages and appearances.  Some were occupied in stripping the skin off a buck which hung from the bough of one of the trees.  Others were roasting portions of the carcass of another deer.  A few sat apart, some talking, others busy in making arrows, while a few lay asleep on the greensward.  As Cuthbert entered the clearing several of the party rose to their feet.

“Ah, Cuthbert,” shouted a man of almost gigantic stature, who appeared to be one of the leaders of the party, “what brings you here, lad, so early?  You are not wont to visit us till even, when you can lay your crossbow at a stag by moonlight.”

“No, no, Cousin Cnut,” Cuthbert said, “thou canst not say that I have ever broken the forest laws, though I have looked on often and often, while you have done so.”

“The abettor is as bad as the thief,” laughed Cnut, “and if the foresters caught us in the act, I wot they would make but little difference whether it was the shaft of my longbow or the quarrel from thy crossbow which brought down the quarry.  But again, lad, why comest thou here? for I see by the sweat on your face and by the heaving of your sides that you have run fast and far.”

“I have, Cnut; I have not once stopped for breathing since I left Erstwood.  I have come to warn you of danger.  The earl is preparing for a raid.”

Cnut laughed somewhat disdainfully.

“He has raided here before, and I trow has carried off no game.  The landless men of the forest can hold their own against a handful of Norman knights and retainers in their own home.”

“Ay,” said Cuthbert, “but this will be no common raid.  This morning bands from all the holds within miles round are riding in, and at least five hundred men-at-arms are likely to do chase to-day.”

“Is it so?” said Cnut, while exclamations of surprise, but not of apprehension, broke from those standing round.  “If that be so, lad, you have done us good service indeed.  With fair warning we can slip through the fingers of ten times five hundred men, but if they came upon us unawares, and hemmed us in, it would fare but badly with us, though we should, I doubt not, give a good account of them before their battle-axes and maces ended the strife.  Have you any idea by which road they will enter the forest, or what are their intentions?”

“I know not,” Cuthbert said; “all that I gathered was that the earl intended to sweep the forest, and to put an end to the breaches of the laws, not to say of the rough treatment that his foresters have met with at your hands.  You had best, methinks, be off before Sir Walter and his heavily-armed men are here.  The forest, large as it is, will scarce hold you both, and methinks you had best shift your quarters to Langholm Chase until the storm has passed.”