I said . `` If I had told him I had spent my night in your halter he would have burned the place twice over by now . '' ' `` If any man had put my neck in a rope , '' she said , `` I would have seen his house burned thrice over before I would have made terms . '' ' `` But it was a woman , '' I said ; and I laughed , and she wept and said that I mocked her in her captivity . ' `` Lady , '' said I , `` there is no captive in this valley except one , and he is not a Saxon . '' ` At this she cried that I was a Norman thief , who came with false , sweet words , having intended from the first to turn her out in the fields to beg her bread . Into the fields ! She had never seen the face of war ! ' I was angry , and answered , `` This much at least I can disprove , for I swear '' -- and on my sword-hilt I swore it in that place -- `` I swear I will never set foot in the Great Hall till the Lady Ælueva herself shall summon me there . '' ` She went away , saying nothing , and I walked out , and Hugh limped after me , whistling dolorously -LRB- that is a custom of the English -RRB- , and we came upon the three Saxons that had bound me . They were now bound by my men-at-arms , and behind them stood some fifty stark and sullen churls of the House and the Manor , waiting to see what should fall . We heard De Aquila 's trumpets blow thin through the woods Kentward . ' `` Shall we hang these ? '' 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 . '
`` XXXXX or Saxon , '' said I , `` we must beat them back , or they will rob us every day .
Aquila English King Manor Norman Saxons men-at-arms night sword-hilt Ælueva