en
doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot off the fire, and a
third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a portion of steaming
collops to each guest. alleyne bore his share and his ale-mug
away with him to a retired trestle in the corner, where he could
sup in peace and watch the strange scene, which was so different
to those silent and well-ordered meals to which he was
accustomed.
the room was not unlike a stable. the low ceiling, smoke-
blackened and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors
with rough-hewn ladders leading up to them. the walls of bare
unpainted planks were studded here and there with great wooden
pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from which hung
over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles. over the
fireplace were suspended six or seven shields of wood, with
coats-of-arms rudely daubed upon them, which showed by their
varying degrees of smokiness and dirt that they had been placed
there at different periods. there was no furniture, save a
single long dresser covered with coarse crockery, and a number of
wooden benches and trestles, the legs of which sank deeply into
the soft clay floor, while the only light, save that of the fire,
was furnished by three torches stuck in sockets on the wall,
which flickered and crackled, giving forth a strong resinous
odor. all this was novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth;
but most interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who
sat eating their collops round the blaze. they were a humble
group of wayfarers, such as might have been found that night in
any inn through the length and breadth of england; but to him
they represented that vague world against which he had been so
frequently and so earnestly warned. it did not seem to him from
what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place after all.
three or four of the men round the fire were evidently
underkeepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned and
bearded, with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the
deer among which they lived. close to the corner of the chimney
sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of norwich cloth,
the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the
neck and at the waist. his face was swollen and coarse, and his
watery protruding eyes spoke of a life which never wandered very
far from the wine-pot. a gilt harp, blotched with many stains
and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his
arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter.
next to him sat two other men of about the same age, one with a
trimming of fur to his coat, which gave him a dignity which was
evidently dearer to him than his comfort, for he still drew it
round him in spite of the hot glare of the faggots. the other,
clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a
cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard.
next to him sat hordle john, and beside him three other rough
unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair-free laborers
from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold
property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the
heart of the royal demesne. the company was completed by a
peasant in a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-
fashioned galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young
man with striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored
hosen, who looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and
held a blue smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he
brandished a busy spoon with the other. in the corner a very fat
man was lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously,
and evidently in the last stage of drunkenness.
"that is wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down beside
alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man. "that
is he who paints the signs and the tokens. alack and alas that
ever i should have been fool enough to trust him! now, young man,
what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that
being the proper sign of my hostel?"
"why," said alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an
eagle or a falcon. i can well remember that learned brother
bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed
one out to me as we walked together near vinney ridge."
"a falcon or an eagle, quotha? and pied, that is of two several
colors. so any man would say except this barrel of lies. he
came to me, look you, saying that if i would furnish him with a
gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and
also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied
merlin which i might hang along with the blazonry over my door.
i, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved,
leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must
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