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law, plucking up his spirits at the Knight’s humble speech.
Quoth Sir Richard, ‘Thou man of law, wilt thou not be-
friend me in mine hour of need?’
‘Nay,’ said the other, ‘I hold with this holy Prior, who hath
paid me my fees in hard gold, so that I am bounder to him.’
‘Wilt thou not be my friend, Sir Sheriff?’ said Sir Rich-
ard.
‘Nay, ‘fore Heaven,’ quoth the Sheriff of Nottingham,
‘this is no business of mine, yet I will do what I may,’ and
he nudged the Prior beneath the cloth with his knee. ‘Wilt
thou not ease him of some of his debts, Sir Prior?’
At this the Prior smiled grimly. ‘Pay me three hundred
pounds, Sir Richard,’ said he, ‘and I will give thee quittance
of thy debt.’
‘Thou knowest, Sir Prior, that it is as easy for me to pay
four hundred pounds as three hundred,’ said Sir Richard.
‘But wilt thou not give me another twelvemonth to pay my
debt?’
‘Not another day,’ said the Prior sternly.
‘And is this all thou wilt do for me?’ asked the Knight.
‘Now, out upon thee, false knight!’ cried the Prior, burst-
ing forth in anger. ‘Either pay thy debt as I have said, or
release thy land and get thee gone from out my hall.’
Then Sir Richard arose to his feet. ‘Thou false, lying
priest!’ said he in so stern a voice that the man of law shrunk
affrighted, ‘I am no false knight, as thou knowest full well,
but have even held my place in the press and the tourney.
Hast thou so little courtesy that thou wouldst see a true
knight kneel for all this time, or see him come into thy hall