"Not know him!" replied the friar, boldly, "I know him as well as the

beggar knows his dish."

"And what is his name, then?" demanded Locksley.

"His name," said the hermit--"his name is Sir Anthony of

Scrabelstone--as if I would drink with a man, and did not know his

name!"

"Thou hast been drinking more than enough, friar," said the woodsman,

"and, I fear, prating more than enough too."

"Good yeoman," said the knight, coming forward, "be not wroth with my

merry host. He did but afford me the hospitality which I would have

compelled from him if he had refused it."

"Thou compel!" said the friar; "wait but till have changed this grey

gown for a green cassock, and if I make not a quarter-staff ring twelve

upon thy pate, I am neither true clerk nor good woodsman."

While he spoke thus, he stript off his gown, and appeared in a close

black buckram doublet and drawers, over which he speedily did on a

cassock of green, and hose of the same colour. "I pray thee truss my

points," said he to Wamba, "and thou shalt have a cup of sack for thy

labour."

"Gramercy for thy sack," said Wamba; "but think'st thou it is lawful

for me to aid you to transmew thyself from a holy hermit into a sinful

forester?"

"Never fear," said the hermit; "I will but confess the sins of my green

cloak to my greyfriar's frock, and all shall be well again."

"Amen!" answered the Jester; "a broadcloth penitent should have a

sackcloth confessor, and your frock may absolve my motley doublet into

the bargain."

So saying, he accommodated the friar with his assistance in tying the

endless number of points, as the laces which attached the hose to the

doublet were then termed.

While they were thus employed, Locksley led the knight a little apart,

and addressed him thus:--"Deny it not, Sir Knight--you are he who

decided the victory to the advantage of the English against the

strangers on the second day of the tournament at Ashby."

"And what follows if you guess truly, good yeoman?" replied the knight.

"I should in that case hold you," replied the yeoman, "a friend to the

weaker party."

"Such is the duty of a true knight at least," replied the Black

Champion; "and I would not willingly that there were reason to think

otherwise of me."




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