"
"Nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "Hi, Dame
Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat.
Go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not
love it he can take to the road and go whence he came."
"Nay, but not too last," broke in Hordle John. "There are two
words in this matter. It may be that my little comrade has been
over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters
and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. Yet
there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song
was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him, therefore, and he
shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be
offended indoors."
"Indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the yeomen,
"have you in sooth so ordained?"
"By the Virgin!" said a second, "I think that you may both chance
to find yourselves upon the road before long."
"And so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it," cried
a third.
"Nay, I shall go! I shall go!" said Alleyne hurriedly, as Hordle
John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a
leg of mutton.
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