THE KING AND THE BONDMENI

 villan to be taken into a monastery or convent to be
 brought up under the charge of one of the monks,
 until at length he became a mornk himself. From
 time to time he looked out along the narrow path
 that led from the cottage to the forest, as though
 watching for some one; at last he said, "Ralph is
 late this evening. If he tarries much longer, I shall
 have to go without seeing him. I wonder what keeps
 him ? "
 Some new wrong, I trow," said Hubert, as the
 elderly man was named, "for Ralph is a good lad,
 and comes willingly home when his day's work is
 ended. Mayhap the steward hath doubled his task,
 for the new lord is to come to the castle ere long.
 And so it goes on; we must toil for our masters by
 night and by day, whether we like it or not. I am
 a-weary of such a life."
 Say not so, father," answered the girl, who had
left her occupation at the fire, say not so; for if
we work hard, do we not have holidays sometimes ?
and we can rest on the Sundays."
 "Truly we have these, Cicely; but am I not a
bondman; are we not all born thralls of the baron?
I want freedom, not holidays."
 "It will not always be so, father; the day will
come when they who till the land shall be as free
as the town-folk and the gentlefolk," said the young
monk Jocelin.
 "Ah, my son, but when; I said so, too, when I
was young as you are; for we heard how that the
peasants and bondmen in France had risen up to
fight for their freedom. Brave work it was, for they
killed many of the nobles, and pulled down their
castles! But now my hair is turning grey, and
freedom is as far off as ever."