delve himself, if delving must be done."
"a proper spirit, my fair son!" said one of the free laborers.
"i would that all men were of thy way of thinking."
"he would have sold me with his acres," the other cried, in a
voice which was hoarse with passion. " 'the man, the woman and
their litter'--so ran the words of the dotard bailiff. never a
bullock on the farm was sold more lightly. ha! he may wake some
black night to find the flames licking about his ears--for fire
is a good friend to the poor man, and i have seen a smoking heap
of ashes where over night there stood just such another
castlewick as ashby."
"this is a lad of mettle!" shouted another of the laborers. he
dares to give tongue to what all men think. are we not all from
adam's loins, all with flesh and blood, and with the same mouth
that must needs have food and drink? where all this difference
then between the ermine cloak and the leathern tunic, if what
they cover is the same?"
"aye, jenkin," said another, "our foeman is under the stole and
the vestment as much as under the helmet and plate of proof. we
have as much to fear from the tonsure as from the hauberk.
strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at priest and
the noble lays his hand upon glaive. they are twin thieves who
live upon our labor."
"it would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, hugh,"
remarked one of the foresters, "seeing that the half of thy time
is spent in swilling mead at the 'pied merlin.' "
"better that than stealing the deer that thou art placed to
guard, like some folk i know."
"if you dare open that swine's mouth against me," shouted the
woodman, "i'll crop your ears for you before the hangman has the
doing of it, thou long-jawed lackbrain."
"nay, gentles, gentles!" cried dame eliza, in a singsong heedless
voice, which showed that such bickerings were nightly things
among her guests. "no brawling or brabbling, gentles! take heed
to the good name of the house."
"besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other
folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. "we are
all freemen, and i trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a
forester's knife. by st. anselm! it would be an evil day if we
had to bend to our master's servants as well as to our masters."
"no man is my master save the king," the woodman answered. "who
is there, save a false traitor, who would refuse to serve the
english king?"
"i know not about the english king," said the man jenkin. "what
sort of english king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a word of
english? you mind last year when he came down to malwood, with
his inner marshal and his outer marshal, his justiciar, his
seneschal, and his four and twenty guardsmen. one noontide i was
by franklin swinton's gate, when up he rides with a yeoman
pricker at his heels. 'ouvre,' he cried, 'ouvre,' or some such
word, making signs for me to open the gate; and then 'merci,' as
though he were adrad of me. and you talk of an english king?"
"i do not marvel at it," cried the cambrig scholar, speaking in
the high drawling voice which was common among his class. "it is
not a tongue for men of sweet birth and delicate upbringing. it
is a foul, snorting, snarling manner of speech. for myself, i
swear by the learned polycarp that i have most ease with hebrew,
and after that perchance with arabian."
"i will not hear a word said against old king ned," cried hordle
john in a voice like a bull. "what if he is fond of a bright eye
and a saucy face. i know one of his subjects who could match him
at that. if he cannot speak like an englishman i trow that he
can fight like an englishman, and he was hammering at the gates
of paris while alehouse topers were grutching and grumbling at
home."
this loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an
appearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell
into a sullen silence, which enabled alleyne to hear something of
the talk which was going on in the further corner between the
physician, the tooth-drawer and the gleeman.
"a raw rat," the man of drugs was saying, "that is what it is
ever my use to order for the plague--a raw rat with its paunch
cut open."
"might it not be broiled, most learned sir?" asked the tooth-
drawer. "a raw rat sounds a most sorry and cheerless dish."
"not to be eaten," cried the physician, in high disdain. "why
should any man eat such a thing?"
"why indeed?" asked the gleeman, taking a long drain at his
tankard.
"it is to be placed on the sore or swelling. for the rat, mark
you, being a foul-living creature, hath a natural drawing or
affinity for all foul things, so that the noxious humors pass
from the man into the unclean beast."
"would that cure the black death, master?" asked jenkin.
"aye, truly would it,
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