which, whether they meet with bands of travelling soldiers, or of outlaws, or of wandering pilgrims, can be little else than to be converted into Normans before morning, to thy no small ease and comfort. >> << The swine turned Normans into my comfort!» quoth Gurth; « expound that to me, Wamba, for my brain is too dull, and my mind too vexed, to read riddles.»' K Why, how call you these grunting brutes running about on their four legs?» demanded Wamba. c « Swine, fool, swine,» said the herd, « every fool knows that." « And swine is good Saxon,» said the jester; « but how call you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels, like a traitor?>> « Pork,» answered the swine-herd. " "I am very glad every fool knows that too,» said Wamba, « and pork, I think, is good Norman French; and so when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the castle-hall to feast among the nobles; what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?»> << It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool's pate.>> . Nay, I can tell you more," said Wamba, in the same tone; « there is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. Mynheer Calve, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment. » « By St Dunstan,» answered Gurth, « thou speakest but sad truths; little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation, clearly for the purpose of enabling us to endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders. The finest and the fattest is for their board; the loveliest is for their couch; the best and bravest supply their foreign masters with soldiers, and whiten distant lands with their bones, leaving few here who have either will or power to protect the 'unfortunate Saxon. God's blessing on our master Cedric, he hath done the work of a man in standing in the gap; but Reginald Front-de-Bœuf is coming down to this country in person, and we shall soon see how little Cedric's trouble will avail him.-Here, here,» he exclaimed again, raising his voice, «Soho! soho! well done, Fangs! thou hast them all before thee now, and bring'st them on bravely, lad.» " « Gurth," said the jester, «I know thou thinkest me a fool, or thou would'st not be so rash in putting thy head into my mouth. One word to Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, or Philip de Malvoisin, that thou hast spoken treason against the Norman, and thou art but a castaway swine-herd,—thou would'st waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities.>> « Dog, thou would'st not betray me,» said Gurth, « after having led me on to speak so much at disadvantage?» « no, « Betray thee!» answered the jester; that were the trick of a wise man; a fool cannot half so well help himself-but soft, whom have we here?" he said, listening to the trampling of several horses which became then audible. " « Never mind whom,» answered Gurth, who had now got his herd before him, and, with the aid of Fangs, was driving them down one of the long dim vistas which we have endeavoured to describe. « Nay, but I must see the riders,» answered Wamba; « perhaps they are come from Fairyland with a message from King Oberon.>> " « A murrain take thee,» rejoined the swineherd; « wilt thou talk of such things, while a terrible storm of thunder and lightning is raging within a few miles of us? Hark, how the thunder rumbles! and for summer rain, I never saw such broad downright flat drops fall out of the clouds; the oaks too, notwithstanding the calm weather, sob and creak with their great boughs as if announcing a tempest. Thou can'st play the rational if thou wilt; credit me for once, and let us home ere the storm begins to rage, for the night will be fearful.» Wamba seemed to feel the force of this ap peal, and accompanied his companion, who began his journey after catching up a long quarter-staff which lay upon the grass beside him. This second Eumæus strode hastily down the forest glade, driving before him, with the assistance of Fangs, the whole herd of his inharmonious charge. CHAPTER II. A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie, A manly man, to be an Abbot able, Full many a daintie horse had he in stable: CHAUCER. NOTWITHSTANDING the occasional exhortation and chiding of his companion, the noise of the horsemen's feet continuing to approach, Wamba could not be prevented from lingering occasionally on the road upon every pretence which occurred; now catching from the hazel a cluster of half-ripe nuts, and now turning his head to leer after a cottage maiden who crossed their path. The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them upon the road. Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two who rode foremost seemed to be persons of considerable importance, and the others their attendants. It was not difficult to ascertain the condition and character of one of these personages. He was obvions |