If not, I leave
you to the king's justice.'
"Not daring to refuse compliance, the keepers took the oath proposed--
and a fearful one it was! As soon as it was Urswick vanished, as he
came, in a flash of fire. Herne, then commanded the others to
dismount, and made them prostrate themselves before him, and pay
him homage.
This done, he blew a strike on his horn, rode swiftly up the hillside, and
a stag being unharboured, the chase commenced. Many a fat buck was
hunted and slaughtered that night; and an hour before daybreak, Herne
commanded them to lay the four finest and fattest at the foot of the
beech-tree, and then dismissed them, bidding them meet him at
midnight at the scathed oak in the home park.
"They came as they were commanded; but fearful of detection, they
adopted strange disguises, not unlike those worn by the caitiffs who
were put to death, a few weeks ago, by the king in the great park.
Night after night they thus went forth, thinning the herds of deer, and
committing other outrages and depredations. Nor were their dark
proceedings altogether unnoticed. Belated travellers crossing the
forest beheld them, and related what they had seen; others watched for
them, but they were so effectually disguised that they escaped
detection.
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