In the years which followed, William the Norman came into these parts and harried whole shires on account of the rebels and broken men who haunted the great roads which ran through the Forest.  Cheshire and Shropshire, Stafford and Warwick were wasted with fire and sword.  And crowds naked and starving--townsmen and churls, men young and old, maidens and aged crones, women with babes in their arms and little ones at their knees--came straggling into Eovesholme, fleeing most sorrowfully from the misery of want.