"By St. Dunstan," 1 answered Gurth, "thou speakest but sad truths. Little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation, solely for the purpose of enabling us to endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders. The finest and the fattest is for their board; the best and bravest supply their foreign masters with soldiers, and whiten distant lands with their bones, leaving few here who have either will or the power to protect the unfortunate Saxon. God's blessing on

our master Cedric! He hath done the work of a man in standing in the gap. But Reginald Front-de-Bœuf is coming down to this country in person, and we shall soon see how little Cedric's trouble will avail him. Here, here!" he exclaimed again, raising his voice. "So ho! so ho! Well done, Fangs! thou hast them all before thee now, and bringst them on bravely, lad."

Gurth," said the Jester, "I know thou thinkest me a fool, or thou wouldst not be so rash in putting thy head into my mouth. One word to Reginald Front-de-Bœuf or Philip de Malvoisin, that thou hast spoken treason against the Norman,—and thou art but a castaway swineherd,—thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities."

"Dog, thou wouldst not betray me,” said Gurth, “after having led me on to speak so much at disadvantage?"

66

Betray thee!" answered the Jester; "no, that were the trick of a wise man; a fool cannot half so well help himself—but soft, whom have we here?" he said, listening to the trampling of several horses which became then audible.

"Never mind whom," answered Gurth, who had now got his herd before him, and, with the aid of Fangs, was driving them down one of the long, dim vistas which we have endeavored to describe.

"Nay, but I must see the riders," answered Wamba; “per

1 Archbishop of Canterbury, 959. He was born in 924 at Glastonbury, was educated by Irish monks, made abbot of Glastonbury and treasurer of his kingdom by King Edmund, and in the reign of Edred (946-955) was almost absolute in national affairs. He died May 19, 988.

haps they are come from Fairy-land with a message from King Oberon." 1

"A murrain take thee!" rejoined the swineherd. "Wilt thou talk of such things while a terrible storm of thunder and lightning is raging within a few miles of us? Hark, how the thunder rumbles! and for summer rain I never saw such broad downright flat drops fall out of the clouds; the oaks, too, notwithstanding the calm weather, sob and creak with their great boughs as if announcing a tempest. Thou canst play the rational2 if thou wilt: credit me3 for once, and let us home ere the storm begins to rage, for the night will be fearful."

Wamba seemed to feel the force of this appeal, and accompanied his companion, who began his journey after catching up a long quarter-staff which lay upon the grass beside him. This second Eumæus 5 strode hastily down the forest glade, driving before him, with the assistance of Fangs, the whole herd of his inharmonious charge.

CHAPTER II.

'WITHSTANDING the occasional exhortation and chid

NOTW

ing of his companion, the noise of the horsemen's feet continuing to approach, Wamba could not be prevented from lingering occasionally on the road, upon every pretense which occurred; now catching from the hazel a cluster of half-ripe nuts, and now

1 King of the fairies. His wife was Titania.

2 Cease being a fool.

3 Believe me.

4 A common old English weapon, usually a stout pole six feet and a half in length, used in defense and offense. The manner of using it was to place one hand on the middle, and the other equally between the end and the middle; and the left hand, shifting from one quarter of the staff to the other, gave the weapon a quick rotary motion, bringing the ends upon the adversary at unlooked-for points.

5 The swineherd of Ulysses in Homer's Odyssey.

turning his head to leer after a cottage maiden who crossed their path. The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them on the road.

Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two who rode foremost seemed to be persons of considerable importance, and the others their attendants. It was not difficult to ascertain the condition and character of one of these personages. He was obviously an ecclesiastic of high rank. His dress was that of a Cistercian1 monk, but composed of materials much finer than those which the rule of that order admitted. His mantle and hood were of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample and not ungraceful folds around a handsome though somewhat corpulent person. His countenance bore as little the marks of self-denial as his habit indicated contempt of worldly splendor. His features might have been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye a sly epicurean 2 twinkle. In other respects his profession and situation had taught him a ready command over his countenance, which he could contract at pleasure into solemnity, although its natural expression was that of goodhumored social indulgence. In defiance of conventual rules and the edicts of popes and councils, the sleeves of this dignitary were lined and turned up with rich furs, his mantle secured at the throat with a golden clasp, and the whole dress proper to his order as much refined upon and ornamented as that of a Quaker beauty of the present day, who, while she retains the garb and costume of her sect, continues to give to its simplicity, by the choice of materials and the mode of disposing them, a certain air of coquettish attraction savoring but too much of the vanities of the world.

This worthy churchman rode upon a well-fed ambling mule,

1 One of the monastic order of the reformed and stricter branch of the Benedictines founded, 1098, by Robert, abbot of Molesme, at Citeaux (Cistercium), in Burgundy, France.

2 Relating to the philosophy of Epicurus, who taught at Athens in the third century B.C. It advocated pleasure as the chief end of life.

whose furniture was highly decorated, and whose bridle, according to the fashion of the day, was ornamented with silver bells. In his seat he had nothing of the awkwardness of the convent, but displayed the easy and habitual grace of a well-trained horseman. Indeed, it seemed that so humble a conveyance as a mule, in however good case, and however well broken to a pleasant and accommodating amble, was only used by the gallant monk for traveling on the road. A lay brother,1 one of those who followed in the train, had, for his use on other occasions, one of the most handsome Spanish jennets 2 ever bred in Andalusia,3 which merchants used at that time to import, with great trouble and risk, for the use of persons of wealth and distinction. The saddle and housings of this superb palfrey were covered by a long foot-cloth which reached nearly to the ground, and on which were richly embroidered miters,5 crosses, and other ecclesiastical emblems. Another lay brother led a sumpter mule, loaded probably with his superior's baggage; and two monks of his own order, of inferior station, rode together in the rear, laughing and conversing with each other, without taking much notice of the other members of the cavalcade.

4

The companion of the church dignitary was a man past forty, thin, strong, tall, and muscular,—an athletic figure, which long fatigue and constant exercise seemed to have left none of the softer part of the human form, having reduced the whole to brawn, bones, and sinews, which had sustained a thousand toils and were ready to dare a thousand more. His head was covered with a scarlet cap faced with fur; of that kind which the French call mortier, from its resemblance to the shape of an in

1 In convents, those under the three vows, but not in holy orders.

2 A breed of small Spanish horses.

3 In the south of Spain, one of the largest of its ancient divisions.

The

name was corrupted from Vandalusia, called so from the Vandals, who settled there in the fifth century.

4 Trappings; the covering for a horse.

5 A covering for the head worn by church dignitaries.

A pack-mule used for carrying baggage.

verted mortar.

His countenance was therefore fully displayed, and its expression was calculated to impress a degree of awe, if not of fear, upon strangers. High features, naturally strong and powerfully expressive, had been burnt almost into negro blackness by constant exposure to the tropical sun, and might in their ordinary state be said to slumber after the storm of passion had passed away; but the projection of the veins of the forehead, the readiness with which the upper lip and its thick black mustaches quivered upon the slightest emotion, plainly intimated that the tempest might be again and easily awakened. His keen, pier

cing, dark eyes told in every glance a history of difficulties subdued and dangers dared, and seemed to challenge opposition to his wishes for the pleasure of sweeping it from his road by a determined exertion of courage and of will. A deep scar on his brow gave additional sternness to his countenance and a sinister expression to one of his eyes, which had been slightly injured on the same occasion, and of which the vision, though perfect, was in a slight and partial degree distorted.

The upper dress of this personage resembled that of his com panion in shape, being a long monastic mantle; but the color being scarlet, showed that he did not belong to any of the four? regular orders of monks. On the right shoulder of the mantle there was cut, in white cloth, a cross of a peculiar form. This upper robe concealed what at first view seemed rather inconsistent with its form,-a shirt, namely, of linked mail, with sleeves

1 Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites. The religious orders, societies bound by rule of religion, were, briefly, monastic, military, and mendicant. The monastic were marked by the rule to which they clung, such as the Benedictines (following the rule of St. Benedict), the Basilians, and the Augustinians (the black monks of St. Augustine, established in the eleventh century, monastic and secular); the military were the Knights Hospitalers, the Knights Templars, and the Teutonic Knights; while the mendicant order embraced the Dominicans and the Franciscans. To this last may also be added the Augustinians and the Carmelites.

2 Armor made of interlaced rings or chains of metal. The name is derived from the French word maille, also meaning the mesh of a net.