"Give it me," said the Templar. "We have that of the priestly character,
that we have some knowledge to enlighten our valour."
"Let us profit by your most reverend knowledge, then," said De Bracy;
"what says the scroll?"
"It is a formal letter of defiance," answered the Templar; "but, by
our Lady of Bethlehem, if it be not a foolish jest, it is the most
extraordinary cartel that ever was sent across the drawbridge of a
baronial castle."
"Jest!" said Front-de-Boeuf, "I would gladly know who dares jest with me
in such a matter!--Read it, Sir Brian."
The Templar accordingly read it as follows:--"I, Wamba, the son of
Witless, Jester to a noble and free-born man, Cedric of Rotherwood,
called the Saxon,--And I, Gurth, the son of Beowulph, the swineherd---"
"Thou art mad," said Front-de-Boeuf, interrupting the reader.
"By St Luke, it is so set down," answered the Templar. Then resuming his
task, he went on,--"I, Gurth, the son of Beowulph, swineherd unto the
said Cedric, with the assistance of our allies and confederates, who
make common cause with us in this our feud, namely, the good knight,
called for the present 'Le Noir Faineant', and the stout yeoman, Robert
Locksley, called Cleave-the-Wand. Do you, Reginald Front de-Boeuf, and
your allies and accomplices whomsoever, to wit, that whereas you have,
without cause given or feud declared, wrongfully and by mastery seized
upon the person of our lord and master the said Cedric; also upon
the person of a noble and freeborn damsel, the Lady Rowena of
Hargottstandstede; also upon the person of a noble and freeborn man,
Athelstane of Coningsburgh; also upon the persons of certain freeborn
men, their 'cnichts'; also upon certain serfs, their born bondsmen; also
upon a certain Jew, named Isaac of York, together with his daughter, a
Jewess, and certain horses and mules: Which noble persons, with their
'cnichts' and slaves, and also with the horses and mules, Jew and Jewess
beforesaid, were all in peace with his majesty, and travelling as liege
subjects upon the king's highway; therefore we require and demand
that the said noble persons, namely, Cedric of Rotherwood, Rowena of
Hargottstandstede, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, with their servants,
'cnichts', and followers, also the horses and mules, Jew and Jewess
aforesaid, together with all goods and chattels to them pertaining, be,
within an hour after the delivery hereof, delivered to us, or to those
whom we shall appoint to receive the same, and that untouched and
unharmed in body and goods. Failing of which, we do pronounce to you,
that we hold ye as robbers and traitors, and will wager our bodies
against ye in battle, siege, or otherwise, and do our utmost to
your annoyance and destruction. Wherefore may God have you in his
keeping.--Signed by us upon the eve of St Withold's day, under the great
trysting oak in the Hart-hill Walk, the above being written by a
holy man, Clerk to God, our Lady, and St Dunstan, in the Chapel of
Copmanhurst."