“This explains how he knew all about us!”

“It is Martin, little Martin, who should have been our chieftain.”

“The last of the house of Michelham!”

“Turned into a preaching friar!”

Grimbeard mused in silence.  At last he gave a whispered order.

“Treat them both well, to the best of our power.  But they must not leave the camp.”

“Mother,” said Martin, “why that cruel message of thy death?  Thou hadst not otherwise lost me so long.”

“It was for thy good.  I would save thee from the life of an outlaw or vagabond, and foresaw that unless I renounced thee utterly, thy love would mar thy fortunes, and bring thee back to my side.”

“My poor forsaken mother!”

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Grimbeard now approached.

“Well, young runaway, thou hast come back in strange guise to thy natural home.  Dost thou remember me?”

“Well, step father, many a sound switching hast thou given me, which doubtless I deserved.”

“Or thou hadst not had them.  Well said, boy, and now wilt thou take up thy abode again with us?  We want a priest.”

“I am no priest, only a preacher, and my mission is to the Andredsweald at large, and the scattered sheep of the Great Shepherd therein.”

“Only thou knowest our whereabouts too well.  We may not let thee go in and out without security, that our retreat be not made known.”

“Father, I have eaten of your bread, and once more of my own free will accepted your hospitality.  Even a heathen would respect your secret, still more a Christian brother.  If I can persuade you to cease from your mode of life, which the Church decrees unlawful, well and good.  But other weapons than those of the Gospel shall never be brought against you by me.”

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They had a long conversation that afternoon, wherein Grimbeard maintained that the position of the “merrie men,” who still kept up a struggle against the Government in the various great forests of the land, such as green Sherwood and the Andredsweald, were simply patriots maintaining a lawful struggle against foreign oppressors.  Martin, on the other hand, maintained that the question was settled by Divine providence, and that the governors of alien blood were now the kings and magistrates to whom, according to Saint Paul, obedience was due.  If two centuries did not establish prescriptive right, how long a period would?

“No length of time,” replied Grimbeard.

“Ah well, then, step father, suppose the poor Welsh, who once lived here, and whom my own remote forefathers destroyed or drove from these parts, were to send to say they would thank the descendants of the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes to go back to their ancient homes in Germany and Denmark, and leave the land to them according to the principle you have laid down.  What should you then say?”