n.
"and here are five more," added alleyne. "holy father, i hand
you twelve florins, which is all that we can give, though we well
know how poor a pay it is for the wondrous things which you sell
us."
"down, pride, down!" cried the pilgrim, still beating upon his
chest. "can i not bend myself then to take this sorry sum which
is offered me for that which has cost me the labors of a life.
give me the dross! here are the precious relics, and, oh, i pray
you that you will handle them softly and with reverence, else had
i rather left my unworthy bones here by the wayside."
with doffed caps and eager hands, the comrades took their new and
precious possessions, and pressed onwards upon their journey,
leaving the aged palmer still seated under the cherry-tree. they
rode in silence, each with his treasure in his hand, glancing at
it from time to time, and scarce able to believe that chance had
made them sole owners of relics of such holiness and worth that
every abbey and church in christendom would have bid eagerly for
their possession. so they journeyed, full of this good fortune,
until opposite the town of le mas, where john's horse cast a
shoe, and they were glad to find a wayside smith who might set
the matter to rights. to him aylward narrated the good hap which
had befallen them; but the smith, when his eyes lit upon the
relics, leaned up against his anvil and laughed, with his hand to
his side, until the tears hopped down his sooty cheeks.
"why, masters," quoth he, "this man is a coquillart, or seller of
false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago. this
nail that he hath sold you was taken from my nail-box, and as to
the wood and the stones, you will see a heap of both outside from
which he hath filled his scrip."
"nay, nay," cried alleyne, "this was a holy man who had journeyed
to jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from the house of
pilate to the mount of olives,"
"i know not about that," said the smith; "but i know that a man
with a gray palmer's hat and gown was here no very long time ago,
and that he sat on yonder stump and ate a cold pullet and drank a
flask of wine. then he begged from me one of my nails, and
filling his scrip with stones, he went upon his way. look at
these nails, and see if they are not the same as that which he
has sold you."
"now may god save us!" cried alleyne, all aghast. "is there no
end then to the wickedness of humankind? he so humble, so aged,
so loth to take our money--and yet a villain and a cheat. whom
can we trust or believe in?"
"i will after him," said aylward, flinging himself into the
saddle. "come, alleyne, we may catch him ere john's horse be
shod."
away they galloped together, and ere long they saw the old gray
palmer walking slowly along in front of them. he turned,
however, at the sound of their hoofs, and it was clear that his
blindness was a cheat like all the rest of him, for he ran
swiftly through a field and so into a wood, where none could
follow him. they hurled their relics after him, and so rode back
to the blacksmith's the poorer both in pocket and in faith.
chapter xxvii.
how rodger club-foot was passed into paradise.
it was evening before the three comrades came into aiguillon,
there they found sir nigel loring and ford safely lodged at the
sign of the "baton rouge," where they supped on good fare and
slept between lavender-scented sheets. it chanced, however, that
a knight of poitou, sir gaston d'estelle, was staying there on
his way back from lithuania, where he had served a term with the
teutonic knights under the land-master of the presbytery of
marienberg. he and sir nigel sat late in high converse as to
bushments, outfalls, and the intaking of cities, with many tales
of warlike men and valiant deeds. then their talk turned to
minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a cittern, upon
which he played the minne-lieder of the north, singing the while
in a high cracked voice of hildebrand and brunhild and siegfried,
and all the strength and beauty of the land of almain. to this
sir nigel answered with the romances of sir eglamour, and of sir
isumbras, and so through the long winter night they sat by the
crackling wood-fire answering each other's songs until the
crowing cocks joined in their concert. yet, with scarce an hour
of rest, sir nigel was as blithe and bright as ever as they set
forth after breakfast upon their way.
"this sir gaston is a very worthy man," said he to his squires as
they rode from the "baton rouge." "he hath a very strong desire
to advance himself, and would have entered upon some small
knightly debate with me, had he not chanced to have his arm-bone
broken by the kick of a horse. i have conceived a great love for
him, and i have promised him that when his bone is mended i wil
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