‘A saint,’ repeated the lady.  ’Anchorets are always saints.  What doth he?’

‘Prayeth,’ answered Simon.  ’Never doth a man come in but he is at his prayers.  ‘Tis always one hour or another!’

‘Ay?’ said Sir Lancelot, interrogatively.  ’Sayest thou so?  Is he an old man?’

Simon put in his word before Hal could speak:  ’Men get so knocked about in these wars that there’s no guessing their age.  I myself should deem that the poor rogue had had some clouts on the head that dazed him and made him fit for nought save saying his prayers.’

Here Sir Lancelot beckoned Simon aside, and walked him away, so as to leave the mother and son alone together.

Lady Threlkeld questioned closely as to the colour of the eyes and hair, and the general appearance of the hermit, and Hal replied, without suspicion, that the eyes were blue, the hair, he thought, of a light colour, the frame tall and slight, graceful though stooping; he had thought at first that the hermit must be old, very old, but had since come to a different conclusion.  His dress was a plain brown gown like a countryman’s.  There was nobody like him, no one whom Hal so loved and venerated, and he could not help, as he stood by his mother, pouring out to her all his feeling for the hermit, and the wise patient words that now and then dropped from him, such as ‘Patience is the armour and conquest of the godly;’ or, ’Shall a man complain for the punishment of his sins?’ ‘Yet,’ said Hal, ’what sins could the anchoret have?  Never did I know that a man could be so holy here on earth.  I deemed that was only for the saints in heaven.’

The lady kissed the boy and said, ’I trow thou hast enjoyed a great honour, my child.’

But she did not say what it was, and when her husband summoned her, she joined him to repair to Penrith, where they were keeping an autumn retirement at a monastery, and had contrived to leave their escort and make this expedition on their way.

Simon examined Hal closely on what he had said to his mother, sighed heavily, and chided him for prating when he had been warned against it, but that was what came of dealing with children and womenfolk.

‘What can be the hurt?’ asked Hal.  ’Sir Lancelot knows well who I am!  No lack of prudence in him would put men on my track.’

‘Hear him!’ cried Simon; ’he thinks there is no nobler quarry in the woods than his lordship!’

‘The hermit!  Oh, Simon, who is he?’

But Simon began to shout for Hob Hogward, and would not hear any further questions before he rode away, as far as Hal could see, in the opposite direction to the hermitage.  But when he repaired thither the next day he was startled by hearing voices and the stamp of horses, and as he reconnoitred through the trees he saw half a dozen rough-looking men, with bows and arrows, buff coats, and steel-guarded caps—­outlaws and robbers as he believed.