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"At that I durst, and I'll say it agäun. Thy mother was a harlot at a fair and thou'rt but a bastard bred of my mother's charity, so's my father can savour and smack his sins."

At that Condemnation ran at him with her nails uplifted, but before she could reach his face he had seized her and pushed her head under his arm.

"Filthy cat, I'll larn 'ee," and he began to beat her with the flat of his hand.

She screamed like a cat, while the other two boys standing by laughed loudly.

At the noise the Harman girls, Naomi and Michal, came running up, with Relph the ploughman and Nanny Stook the milkmaid.

"Woa, then—woa, then, Sam," cried Relph. "Why shud'ee wallop my doxy?"

"She would have scratched my face. I'll larn her."

"And she says she an't your doxy," said Saul.

"She's my doxy for sure, and to marry me in the spring. The goodman said so."

"I'll let her go," grinned Sam, "if she'll kiss thee now."

But Condemnation only kicked and screamed more frantically.

"Nay, let her go," said Naomi, "or Mr. Braceley 'ull hear her screeching in my father's chamber."