Page 228 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

‘How now,’ broke in the Prior in a quivering voice, his
eyes glistening and his cheeks red with anger, ‘dost thou
prate to my very beard, sirrah? By Saint Hubert, thou hadst
best save thy breath to cool thy pottage, else it may scald
thy mouth.’
‘Nay,’ said the man of law smoothly, ‘I dare swear this
same knight will never come to settlement this day, but will
prove recreant. Nevertheless, we will seek some means to
gain his lands from him, so never fear.’
But even as the doctor spoke, there came a sudden clatter
of horses’ hoofs and a jingle of iron mail in the courtyard
below. Then up spake the Prior and called upon one of the
brethren that sat below the salt, and bade him look out of
the window and see who was below, albeit he knew right
well it could be none but Sir Richard.
So the brother arose and went and looked, and he said,
‘I see below a score of stout men-at-arms and a knight just
dismounting from his horse. He is dressed in long robes of
gray which, methinks, are of poor seeming; but the horse he
rideth upon hath the richest coursing that ever I saw. The
Knight dismounts and they come this way, and are even
now below in the great hall.’
‘Lo, see ye there now,’ quoth Prior Vincent. ‘Here ye have
a knight with so lean a purse as scarce to buy him a crust of
bread to munch, yet he keeps a band of retainers and puts
rich trappings upon his horse’s hide, while his own back
goeth bare. Is it not well that such men should be brought
low?’
‘But art thou sure,’ said the little doctor tremulously, ‘that