The knight, in order to follow so laudable an example, laid aside his

helmet, his corslet, and the greater part of his armour, and showed to

the hermit a head thick-curled with yellow hair, high features, blue

eyes, remarkably bright and sparkling, a mouth well formed, having an

upper lip clothed with mustachoes darker than his hair, and bearing

altogether the look of a bold, daring, and enterprising man, with which

his strong form well corresponded.

The hermit, as if wishing to answer to the confidence of his guest,

threw back his cowl, and showed a round bullet head belonging to a man

in the prime of life. His close-shaven crown, surrounded by a circle

of stiff curled black hair, had something the appearance of a parish

pinfold begirt by its high hedge. The features expressed nothing of

monastic austerity, or of ascetic privations; on the contrary, it was

a bold bluff countenance, with broad black eyebrows, a well-turned

forehead, and cheeks as round and vermilion as those of a trumpeter,

from which descended a long and curly black beard. Such a visage,

joined to the brawny form of the holy man, spoke rather of sirloins and

haunches, than of pease and pulse. This incongruity did not escape the

guest. After he had with great difficulty accomplished the mastication

of a mouthful of the dried pease, he found it absolutely necessary

to request his pious entertainer to furnish him with some liquor; who

replied to his request by placing before him a large can of the purest

water from the fountain.

"It is from the well of St Dunstan," said he, "in which, betwixt sun and

sun, he baptized five hundred heathen Danes and Britons--blessed be his

name!" And applying his black beard to the pitcher, he took a draught

much more moderate in quantity than his encomium seemed to warrant.

"It seems to me, reverend father," said the knight, "that the small

morsels which you eat, together with this holy, but somewhat thin

beverage, have thriven with you marvellously. You appear a man more

fit to win the ram at a wrestling match, or the ring at a bout at

quarter-staff, or the bucklers at a sword-play, than to linger out your

time in this desolate wilderness, saying masses, and living upon parched

pease and cold water."

"Sir Knight," answered the hermit, "your thoughts, like those of the

ignorant laity, are according to the flesh. It has pleased Our Lady and

my patron saint to bless the pittance to which I restrain myself, even

as the pulse and water was blessed to the children Shadrach, Meshech,

and Abednego, who drank the same rather than defile themselves with the

wine and meats which were appointed them by the King of the Saracens."




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