Excerpt from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vol. 3: The Black Arrow, The Merry Men and Other Tales

Tunstall hamlet at that period, in the reign of old King Henry VI, wore much the same appearance as it wears to day. A score or SO of houses, heavily framed with oak, stood scattered in a long green valley ascending from the river. At the foot, the road crossed a bridge, and mount ing on the other side, disappeared into the fringes of the forest on its way to the Moat House, and further forth to Holywood Abbey. Half -way up the village, the church stood among yews. On every Side the slopes were crowned and the view bounded by the green elms and greening oak trees of the forest.

Hard by the bridge, there was a stone cross upon a knoll, and here the group had collected - half a dozen women and one tall fellow in a russet smock - discussing what the bell betided. An express had gone through the hamlet half an hour before, and drunk a pot of ale in the saddle. Not daring to dismount for the hurry of his errand, but he had been ignorant himself of what was forward, and only bore sealed letters from Sir Daniel Brackley to Sir Oliver Oates, the parson, who kept the Moat House in the master's absence.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.