CHAPTER XXXIII
---Flower of warriors, How is't with Titus Lartius? _Marcius_. As with a man busied about decrees, Condemning some to death and some to exile, Ransoming him or pitying, threatening the other.
_Coriolanus_
The captive Abbot's features and manners exhibited a whimsical mixture of offended pride, and deranged foppery and bodily terror.
``Why, how now, my masters?'' said he, with a voice in which all three emotions were blended. ``What order is this among ye? Be ye Turks or Christians, that handle a churchman?---Know ye what it is, _manus imponere in servos Domini_? Ye have plundered my mails---torn my cope of curious cut lace, which might have served a cardinal!--- Another in my place would have been at his _excommunicabo vos_; but I am placible, and if ye order forth my palfreys, release my brethren, and restore my mails, tell down with all speed an hundred crowns to be expended in masses at the high altar of Jorvaulx Abbey, and make your vow to eat no venison until next Pentecost, it may be you shall hear little more of this mad frolic.''
``Holy Father,'' said the chief Outlaw, ``it grieves me to think that you have met with such usage from any of my followers, as calls for your fatherly reprehension.''
``Usage!'' echoed the priest, encouraged by the mild tone of the silvan leader; ``it were usage fit for no hound of good race---much less for a Christian ---far less for a priest---and least of all for the Prior of the holy community of Jorvaulx. Here is a profane and drunken minstrel, called Allan-a-Dale ---_nebulo quidam_---who has menaced me with corporal punishment---nay, with death itself, an I pay not down four hundred crowns of ransom, to the boot of all the treasure he hath already robbed me of---gold chains and gymmal rings to an unknown value; besides what is broken and spoiled among their rude hands, such as my pouncer-box and silver crisping-tongs.''
``It is impossible that Allan-a-Dale can have thus treated a man of your reverend bearing,'' replied the Captain.
``It is true as the gospel of Saint Nicodemus,'' said the Prior; ``he swore, with many a cruel north-country oath, that he would hang me up on the highest tree in the greenwood.''
``Did he so in very deed? Nay, then, reverend father, I think you had better comply with his demands ---for Allan-a-Dale is the very man to abide by his word when he has so pledged it.'' *
* A commissary is said to have received similar consolation * from a certain Commander-in-chief, to whom he complained * that a general officer had used some such threat towards him as * that in the text.
``You do but jest with me,'' said the astounded Prior, with a forced laugh; ``and I love a good jest with all my heart. But, ha! ha! ha! when the mirth has lasted the livelong night, it is time to be grave in the morning.''
``And I am as grave as a father confessor,'' replied the Outlaw; ``you must pay a round ransom, Sir Prior, or your convent is likely to be called to a new election; for your place will know you no more.''
``Are ye Christians,'' said the Prior, ``and hold this language to a churchman?''
``Christians! ay, marry are we, and have divinity among us to boot,'' answered the Outlaw. ``Let our buxom chaplain stand forth, and expound to this reverend father the texts which concern this matter.''
The Friar, half-drunk, half-sober, had huddled a friar's frock over his green cassock, and now summoning together whatever scraps of learning he had acquired by rote in former days, ``Holy father,'' said he, ``_Deus faciat salvam benignitatem vestram_--- You are welcome to the greenwood.''
``What profane mummery is this?'' said the Prior. ``Friend, if thou best indeed of the church, it were a better deed to show me how I may escape from these men's hands, than to stand ducking and grinning here like a morris-dancer.''
``Truly, reverend father,'' said the Friar, ``I know but one mode in which thou mayst escape. This is Saint Andrew's day with us, we are taking our tithes.''
``But not of the church, then, I trust, my good brother?'' said the Prior.
``Of church and lay,'' said the Friar; ``and therefore, Sir Prior _facite vobis amicos de Mammone iniquitatis_---make yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, for no other friendship is like to serve your turn.''
``I love a jolly woodsman at heart,'' said the Prior, softening his tone; ``come, ye must not deal too hard with me---I can well of woodcraft, and can wind a horn clear and lustily, and hollo till every oak rings again---Come, ye must not deal too hard with me.''
``Give him a horn,'' said the Outlaw; ``we will prove the skill he boasts of.''
The Prior Aymer winded a blast accordingly. The Captain shook his head.
``Sir Prior,'' he said, ``thou blowest a merry note, but it may not ransom thee---we cannot afford, as the legend on a good knight's shield hath it, to set thee free for a blast. Moreover, I have found thee---thou art one of those, who, with new French graces and Tra-li-ras, disturb the ancient English bugle notes.---Prior, that last flourish on the recheat hath added fifty crowns to thy ransom, for corrupting the true old manly blasts of venerie.''
``Well, friend,'' said the Abbot, peevishly, ``thou art ill to please with thy woodcraft. I pray thee be more conformable in this matter of my ransom. At a word---since I must needs, for once, hold a candle to the devil---what ransom am I to pay for walking on Watling-street, without having fifty men at my back?''
``Were it not well,'' said the Lieutenant of the gang apart to the Captain, ``that the Prior should name the Jew's ransom, and the Jew name the Prior's?''
``Thou art a mad knave,'' said the Captain, ``but thy plan transcends!---Here, Jew, step forth--- Look at that holy Father Aymer, Prior of the rich Abbey of Jorvaulx, and tell us at what ransom we should hold him?---Thou knowest the income of his convent, I warrant thee.''
``O, assuredly,'' said Isaac. ``I have trafficked with the good fathers, and bought wheat and barley, and fruits of the earth, and also much wool. O, it is a rich abbey-stede, and they do live upon the fat, and drink the sweet wines upon the lees, these good fathers of Jorvaulx. Ah, if an outcast like me had such a home to go to, and such incomings by the year and by the month, I would pay much gold and silver to redeem my captivity.''
``Hound of a Jew!'' exclaimed the Prior, ``no one knows better than thy own cursed self, that our holy house of God is indebted for the finishing of our chancel---''
``And for the storing of your cellars in the last season with the due allowance of Gascon wine,'' interrupted the Jew; ``but that---that is small matters.''
``Hear the infidel dog!'' said the churchman; he jangles as if our holy community did come under debts for the wines we have a license to drink, _propter necessitatem, et ad frigus depellendum_. The circumcised villain blasphemeth the holy church, and Christian men listen and rebuke him not!''
``All this helps nothing,'' said the leader. ---``Isaac, pronounce what be may pay, without flaying both hide and hair.''
``An six hundred crowns,'' said Isaac, ``the good Prior might well pay to your honoured valours, and never sit less soft in his stall.''
``Six hundred crowns,'' said the leader, gravely; ``I am contented---thou hast well spoken, Isaac--- six hundred crowns.---It is a sentence, Sir Prior.''
``A sentence!---a sentence!'' exclaimed the band; ``Solomon had not done it better.''
``Thou hearest thy doom, Prior,'' said the leader.
``Ye are mad, my masters,'' said the Prior; ``where am I to find such a sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar at Jorvaulx, I shall scarce raise the half; and it will be necessary for that purpose that I go to Jorvaulx myself; ye may retain as borrows* my two priests.''
* Borghs, or borrows, signifies pledges. Hence our word to * borrow, because we pledge ourselves to restore what is lent.
``That will be but blind trust,'' said the Outlaw; ``we will retain thee, Prior, and send them to fetch thy ransom. Thou shalt not want a cup of wine and a collop of venison the while; and if thou lovest woodcraft, thou shalt see such as your north country never witnessed.''
``Or, if so please you,'' said Isaac, willing to curry favour with the outlaws, ``I can send to York for the six hundred crowns, out of certain monies in my hands, if so be that the most reverend Prior present will grant me a quittance.''
``He shall grant thee whatever thou dost list, Isaac,'' said the Captain; ``and thou shalt lay down the redemption money for Prior Aymer as well as for thyself.''
``For myself! ah, courageous sirs,'' said the Jew, ``I am a broken and impoverished man; a beggar's staff must be my portion through life, supposing I were to pay you fifty crowns.''
``The Prior shall judge of that matter,'' replied the Captain.---``How say you, Father Aymer? Can the Jew afford a good ransom?''
``Can he afford a ransom?'' answered the Prior ``Is he not Isaac of York, rich enough to redeem the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, who were led into Assyrian bondage?---I have seen but little of him myself, but our cellarer and treasurer have dealt largely with him, and report says that his house at York is so full of gold and silver as is a shame in any Christian land. Marvel it is to all living Christian hearts that such gnawing adders should be suffered to eat into the bowels of the state, and even of the holy church herself, with foul usuries and extortions.''
``Hold, father,'' said the Jew, ``mitigate and assuage your choler. I pray of your reverence to remember that I force my monies upon no one. But when churchman and layman, prince and prior, knight and priest, come knocking to Isaac's door, they borrow not his shekels with these uncivil terms. It is then, Friend Isaac, will you pleasure us in this matter, and our day shall be truly kept, so God sa' me?---and Kind Isaac, if ever you served man, show yourself a friend in this need! And when the day comes, and I ask my own, then what hear I but Damned Jew, and The curse of Egypt on your tribe, and all that may stir up the rude and uncivil populace against poor strangers! ''
``Prior,'' said the Captain, ``Jew though he be, he hath in this spoken well. Do thou, therefore, name his ransom, as he named thine, without farther rude terms.''
``None but _latro famosus_---the interpretation whereof,'' said the Prior, ``will I give at some other time and tide---would place a Christian prelate and an unbaptized Jew upon the same bench. But since ye require me to put a price upon this caitiff, I tell you openly that ye will wrong yourselves if you take from him a penny under a thousand crowns.''
``A sentence!---a sentence!'' exclaimed the chief Outlaw.
``A sentence!---a sentence!'' shouted his assessors; ``the Christian has shown his good nurture, and dealt with us more generously than the Jew.''
``The God of my fathers help me!'' said the Jew; ``will ye bear to the ground an impoverished creature?---I am this day childless, and will ye deprive me of the means of livelihood?''
``Thou wilt have the less to provide for, Jew, if thou art childless,'' said Aymer.
``Alas! my lord,'' said Isaac, ``your law permits you not to know how the child of our bosom is entwined with the strings of our heart---O Rebecca! laughter of my beloved Rachel! were each leaf on that tree a zecchin, and each zecchin mine own, all that mass of wealth would I give to know whether thou art alive, and escaped the hands of the Nazarene!''
``Was not thy daughter dark-haired?'' said one of the outlaws; ``and wore she not a veil of twisted sendal, broidered with silver?''
``She did!---she did!'' said the old man, trembling with eagerness, as formerly with fear. ``The blessing of Jacob be upon thee! canst thou tell me aught of her safety?''
``It was she, then,'' said the yeoman, ``who was carried off by the proud Templar, when he broke through our ranks on yester-even. I had drawn my bow to send a shaft after him, but spared him even for the sake of the damsel, who I feared might take harm from the arrow.''
``Oh!'' answered the Jew, ``I would to God thou hadst shot, though the arrow had pierced her bosom!---Better the tomb of her fathers than the dishonourable couch of the licentious and savage Templar. Ichabod! Ichabod! the glory hath departed from my house!''
``Friends,'' said the Chief, looking round, ``the old man is but a Jew, natheless his grief touches me.---Deal uprightly with us, Isaac---will paying this ransom of a thousand crowns leave thee altogether penniless?''
Isaac, recalled to think of his worldly goods, the love of which, by dint of inveterate habit, contended even with his parental affection, grew pale, stammered, and could not deny there might be some small surplus.
``Well---go to---what though there be,'' said the Outlaw, ``we will not reckon with thee too closely. Without treasure thou mayst as well hope to redeem thy child from the clutches of Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, as to shoot a stag-royal with a headless shaft.---We will take thee at the same ransom with Prior Aymer, or rather at one hundred crowns lower, which hundred crowns shall be mine own peculiar loss, and not light upon this worshipful community; and so we shall avoid the heinous offence of rating a Jew merchant as high as a Christian prelate, and thou wilt have six hundred crowns remaining to treat for thy daughter's ransom. Templars love the glitter of silver shekels as well as the sparkle of black eyes.---Hasten to make thy crowns chink in the ear of De Bois-Guilbert, ere worse comes of it. Thou wilt find him, as our scouts have brought notice, at the next Preceptory house of his Order.---Said I well, my merry mates?''
The yeomen expressed their wonted acquiescence in their leader's opinion; and Isaac, relieved of one half of his apprehensions, by learning that his daughter lived, and might possibly be ransomed, threw himself at the feet of the generous Outlaw, and, rubbing his beard against his buskins, sought to kiss the hem of his green cassock. The Captain drew himself back, and extricated himself from the Jew's grasp, not without some marks of contempt.
``Nay, beshrew thee, man, up with thee! I am English born, and love no such Eastern prostrations ---Kneel to God, and not to a poor sinner, like me.''
``Ay, Jew,'' said Prior Aymer; ``kneel to God, as represented in the servant of his altar, and who knows, with thy sincere repentance and due gifts to the shrine of Saint Robert, what grace thou mayst acquire for thyself and thy daughter Rebecca? I grieve for the maiden, for she is of fair and comely countenance,---I beheld her in the lists of Ashby. Also Brian de Bois-Guilbert is one with whom I may do much---bethink thee how thou mayst deserve my good word with him.''
``Alas! alas!'' said the Jew, ``on every hand the spoilers arise against me---I am given as a prey unto the Assyrian, and a prey unto him of Egypt.''
``And what else should be the lot of thy accursed
race?'' answered the Prior; ``for what saith
holy writ, _verbum Dominii projecterunt, et sapientia
est nulla in eis_---they have cast forth the word of
the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them; _propterea
dabo mulieres eorum exteris_---I will give their
women to strangers, that is to the Templar, as in
the present matter; _et thesauros eorum h
Isaac groaned deeply, and began to wring his
hands, and to relapse into his state of desolation
and despair. But the leader of the yeomen led him
aside.
``Advise thee well, Isaac,'' said Locksley, ``what
thou wilt do in this matter; my counsel to thee is
to make a friend of this churchman. He is vain,
Isaac, and he is covetous; at least he needs money
to supply his profusion. Thou canst easily gratify
his greed; for think not that I am blinded by thy
pretexts of poverty. I am intimately acquainted,
Isaac, with the very iron chest in which thou dost
keep thy money-bags---What! know I not the
great stone beneath the apple-tree, that leads into
the vaulted chamber under thy garden at York?''
The Jew grew as pale as death---``But fear nothing
from me,'' continued the yeoman, ``for we
are of old acquainted. Dost thou not remember
the sick yeoman whom thy fair daughter Rebecca
redeemed from the gyves at York, and kept him in
thy house till his health was restored, when thou
didst dismiss him recovered, and with a piece of
money?---Usurer as thou art, thou didst never place
coin at better interest than that poor silver mark,
for it has this day saved thee five hundred crowns.''
``And thou art he whom we called Diccon Bend-the-Bow?''
said Isaac; ``I thought ever I knew
the accent of thy voice.''
``I am Bend-the-Bow,'' said the Captain, ``and
Locksley, and have a good name besides all these.''
``But thou art mistaken, good Bend-the-Bow,
concerning that same vaulted apartment. So help
me Heaven, as there is nought in it but some merchandises
which I will gladly part with to you---
one hundred yards of Lincoln green to make doublets
to thy men, and a hundred staves of Spanish
yew to make bows, and a hundred silken bowstrings,
tough, round, and sound---these will I send
thee for thy good-will, honest Diccon, an thou wilt
keep silence about the vault, my good Diccon.''
``Silent as a dormouse,'' said the Outlaw; ``and
never trust me but I am grieved for thy daughter.
But I may not help it---The Templars lances are
too strong for my archery in the open field---they
would scatter us like dust. Had I but known it
was Rebecca when she was borne off, something
might have been done; but now thou must needs
proceed by policy. Come, shall I treat for thee
with the Prior?''
``In God's name, Diccon, an thou canst, aid me
to recover the child of my bosom!''
``Do not thou interrupt me with thine ill-timed
avarice,'' said the Outlaw, ``and I will deal with
him in thy behalf.''
He then turned from the Jew, who followed him,
however, as closely as his shadow.
``Prior Aymer,'' said the Captain, ``come apart
with me under this tree. Men say thou dost love
wine, and a lady's smile, better than beseems thy
Order, Sir Priest; but with that I have nought to
do. I have heard, too, thou dost love a brace of good
dogs and a fleet horse, and it may well be that,
loving things which are costly to come by, thou
hatest not a purse of gold. But I have never heard
that thou didst love oppression or cruelty.---Now,
here is Isaac willing to give thee the means of pleasure
and pastime in a bag containing one hundred
marks of silver, if thy intercession with thine ally
the Templar shall avail to procure the freedom of
his daughter.''
``In safety and honour, as when taken from me,''
said the Jew, ``otherwise it is no bargain.''
``Peace, Isaac,'' said the Outlaw, ``or I give up
thine interest.---What say you to this my purpose,
Prior Aymer?''
``The matter,'' quoth the Prior, ``is of a mixed
condition; for, if I do a good deal on the one hand,
yet, on the other, it goeth to the vantage of a Jew,
and in so much is against my conscience. Yet, if
the Israelite will advantage the Church by giving
me somewhat over to the building of our dortour,*
* _Dortour_, or dormitory.
I will take it on my conscience to aid him in the
matter of his daughter.''
``For a score of marks to the dortour,'' said the
Outlaw,---``Be still, I say, Isaac!---or for a brace
of silver candlesticks to the altar, we will not stand
with you.''
``Nay, but, good Diccon Bend-the-Bow''---said
Isaac, endeavouring to interpose.
``Good Jew---good beast---good earthworm!''
said the yeoman, losing patience; ``an thou dost go
on to put thy filthy lucre in the balance with thy
daughter's life and honour, by Heaven, I will strip
thee of every maravedi thou hast in the world, before
three days are out!''
Isaac shrunk together, and was silent.
``And what pledge am I to have for all this?''
said the Prior.
``When Isaac returns successful through your
mediation,'' said the Outlaw, ``I swear by Saint
Hubert, I will see that he pays thee the money in
good silver, or I will reckon with him for it in such
sort, he had better have paid twenty such sums.''
``Well then, Jew,'' said Aymer, ``since I must
needs meddle in this matter, let me have the use
of thy writing-tablets---though, hold---rather than
use thy pen, I would fast for twenty-four hours,
and where shall I find one?''
``If your holy scruples can dispense with using
the Jew's tablets, for the pen I can find a remedy,''
said the yeoman; and, bending his bow, he aimed
his shaft at a wild-goose which was soaring over
their heads, the advanced-guard of a phalanx of his
tribe, which were winging their way to the distant
and solitary fens of Holderness. The bird came
fluttering down, transfixed with the arrow.
``There, Prior,'' said the Captain, ``are quills
enow to supply all the monks of Jorvaulx for the
next hundred years, an they take not to writing
chronicles.''
The Prior sat down, and at great leisure indited
an epistle to Brian de Bois-Guilbert, and having
carefully sealed up the tablets, delivered them to
the Jew, saying, ``This will be thy safe-conduct
to the Preceptory of Templestowe, and, as I think,
is most likely to accomplish the delivery of thy
daughter, if it be well backed with proffers of advantage
and commodity at thine own hand; for,
trust me well, the good Knight Bois-Guilbert is of
their confraternity that do nought for nought.''
``Well, Prior,'' said the Outlaw, ``I will detain
thee no longer here than to give the Jew a quittance
for the six hundred crowns at which thy ransom
is fixed---I accept of him for my pay-master;
and if I hear that ye boggle at allowing him in his
accompts the sum so paid by him, Saint Mary refuse
me, an I burn not the abbey over thine head,
though I hang ten years the sooner!''
With a much worse grace than that wherewith
he had penned the letter to Bois-Guilbert, the Prior
wrote an acquittance, discharging Isaac of York of
six hundred crowns, advanced to him in his need
for acquittal of his ransom, and faithfully promising
to hold true compt with him for that sum.
``And now,'' said Prior Aymer, ``I will pray
you of restitution of my mules and palfreys, and
the freedom of the reverend brethren attending upon
me, and also of the gymmal rings, jewels, and
fair vestures, of which I have been despoiled, having
now satisfied you for my ransom as a true prisoner.''
``Touching your brethren, Sir Prior,'' said Locksley,
``they shall have present freedom, it were unjust
to detain them; touching your horses and
mules, they shall also be restored, with such spending-money
as may enable you to reach York, for
it were cruel to deprive you of the means of journeying.
---But as concerning rings, jewels, chains,
and what else, you must understand that we are
men of tender consciences, and will not yield to a
venerable man like yourself, who should be dead
to the vanities of this life, the strong temptation to
break the rule of his foundation, by wearing rings,
chains, or other vain gauds.''
``Think what you do, my masters,'' said the Prior,
``ere you put your hand on the Church's patrimony
---These things are _inter res sacras_, and I wot not
what judgment might ensue were they to be handled
by laical hands.''
``I will take care of that, reverend Prior,'' said
the Hermit of Copmanhurst; ``for I will wear
them myself.''
``Friend, or brother,'' said the Prior, in answer
to this solution of his doubts, ``if thou hast really
taken religious orders, I pray thee to look how
thou wilt answer to thine official for the share thou
hast taken in this day's work.''
``Friend Prior,'' returned the Hermit, ``you are
to know that I belong to a little diocese, where I
am my own diocesan, and care as little for the Bishop
of York as I do for the Abbot of Jorvaulx,
the Prior, and all the convent.''
``Thou art utterly irregular,'' said the Prior;
``one of those disorderly men, who, taking on them
the sacred character without due cause, profane
the holy rites, and endanger the souls of those who
take counsel at their hands; _lapides pro pane condonantes
iis_, giving them stones instead of bread
as the Vulgate hath it.''
``Nay,'' said the Friar, ``an my brain-pan could
have been broken by Latin, it had not held so long
together.---I say, that easing a world of such misproud
priests as thou art of their jewels and their
gimcracks, is a lawful spoiling of the Egyptians.''
``Thou be'st a hedge-priest,''* said the Prior, in
* Note H. Hedge-Priests.
great wrath, ``_excommuicabo vos_.''
``Thou best thyself more like a thief and a heretic,''
said the Friar, equally indignant; ``I will
pouch up no such affront before my parishioners,
as thou thinkest it not shame to put upon me, although
I be a reverend brother to thee. _Ossa enis
perfringam_, I will break your bones, as the Vulgate
hath it.''
``Hola!'' cried the Captain, ``come the reverend
brethren to such terms?---Keep thine assurance of
peace, Friar.---Prior, an thou hast not made thy
peace perfect with God, provoke the Friar no further.
---Hermit, let the reverend father depart in
peace, as a ransomed man.''
The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who
continued to raise their voices, vituperating each
other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered the
more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater
vehemence. The Prior at length recollected himself
sufficiently to be aware that he was compromising
his dignity, by squabbling with such a hedge-priest
as the Outlaw's chaplain, and being joined
by his attendants, rode off with considerably less
pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition,
so far as worldly matters were concerned, than he
had exhibited before this rencounter.
It remained that the Jew should produce some
security for the ransom which he was to pay on the
Prior's account, as well as upon his own. He gave,
accordingly, an order sealed with his signet, to a
brother of his tribe at York, requiring him to pay
to the bearer the sum of a thousand crowns, and to
deliver certain merchandises specified in the note.
``My brother Sheva,'' he said, groaning deeply,
``hath the key of my warehouses.''
``And of the vaulted chamber,'' whispered Locksley.
``No, no---may Heaven forefend!'' said Isaac;
``evil is the hour that let any one whomsoever into
that secret!''
``It is safe with me,'' said the Outlaw, ``so be
that this thy scroll produce the sum therein nominated
and set down.---But what now, Isaac?
art dead? art stupefied? hath the payment of a
thousand crowns put thy daughter's peril out of
thy mind?''
The Jew started to his feet---``No, Diccon, no
---I will presently set forth.---Farewell, thou whom
I may not call good, and dare not and will not call
evil.''
Yet ere Isaac departed, the Outlaw Chief bestowed
on him this parting advice:---``Be liberal
of thine offers, Isaac, and spare not thy purse for
thy daughter's safety. Credit me, that the gold
thou shalt spare in her cause, will hereafter give
thee as much agony as if it were poured molten
down thy throat.''
Isaac acquiesced with a deep groan, and set forth
on his journey, accompanied by two tall foresters,
who were to be his guides, and at the same time
his guards, through the wood.
The Black Knight, who had seen with no small
interest these various proceedings, now took his
leave of the Outlaw in turn; nor could he avoid
expressing his surprise at having witnessed so much
of civil policy amongst persons cast out from all the
ordinary protection and influence of the laws.
``Good fruit, Sir Knight,'' said the yeoman,
``will sometimes grow on a sorry tree; and evil
times are not always productive of evil alone and
unmixed. Amongst those who are drawn into this
lawless state, there are, doubtless, numbers who
wish to exercise its license with some moderation,
and some who regret, it may be, that they are
obliged to follow such a trade at all.''
``And to one of those,'' said the Knight, ``I am
now, I presume, speaking?''
``Sir Knight,'' said the Outlaw, ``we have each
our secret. You are welcome to form your judgment
of me, and I may use my conjectures touching
you, though neither of our shafts may hit the
mark they are shot at. But as I do not pray to be
admitted into your mystery, be not offended that I
preserve my own.''
``I crave pardon, brave Outlaw,'' said the Knight,
``your reproof is just. But it may be we shall meet
hereafter with less of concealment on either side.---
Meanwhile we part friends, do we not?''
``There is my hand upon it,'' said Locksley;
``and I will call it the hand of a true Englishman,
though an outlaw for the present.''
``And there is mine in return,'' said the Knight,
``and I hold it honoured by being clasped with
yours. For he that does good, having the unlimited
power to do evil, deserves praise not only for
the good which he performs, but for the evil which
he forbears. Fare thee well, gallant Outlaw!''
Thus parted that fair fellowship; and He of the
Fetterlock, mounting upon his strong war-horse,
rode off through the forest.
Òà·²¹«ÒæͼÊé¹Ý(shuku.net)