"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."