said my men . ' `` Then my churls will fight , '' said Hugh , beneath his breath ; but I bade him ask the three what mercy they hoped for . ' `` None , '' said they all . `` She bade us hang thee if our master died . And we would have hanged thee . There is no more to it . '' ` As I stood doubting , a woman ran down from the oak wood above the King 's Hill yonder , and cried out that some Normans were driving off the swine there . ' `` Norman or Saxon , '' said I , `` we must beat them back , or they will rob us every day . Out at them with any arms ye have ! '' So I loosed those three carles and we ran together , my men-at-arms and the Saxons with bills and axes which they had hidden in the thatch of their huts , and Hugh led them . Half-way up the King 's Hill we found a false fellow from Picardy -- a sutler that sold wine in the Duke 's camp -- with a dead knight 's shield on his arm , a stolen horse under him , and some ten or twelve wastrels at his tail , all cutting and slashing at the pigs . We beat them off , and saved our pork . One hundred and seventy pigs we saved in that great battle . ' Sir Richard laughed . ` That , then , was our first work together , and I bade Hugh tell his folk that so would I deal with any man , knight or churl , Norman or Saxon , who stole as much as one egg from our valley . Said he to me , riding home : `` Thou hast gone far to conquer England this evening . '' I answered : `` England must be thine and mine , then . Help me , Hugh , to deal aright with these people . Make them to know that if they slay me De Aquila will surely send to slay them , and he will put a worse man in my place . '' `` That may well be true , '' said he , and gave me his hand .
`` Better the devil we know than the devil we know not , till we can pack you XXXXX home . ''
Aquila King Norman Normans Richard carles churl evening first thatch