You saw the things I had with me at yonder
hostel: name which you will, save only the box of rose-colored
sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and you shall have it if
you will but come with me to France."
"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or
where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are
the only two friends that I have in the whole wide world outside
of the cloisters; but, indeed, it may not be, for my duty is
towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are dead, and
he my elder. Besides, when ye talk of taking me to France, ye do
not conceive how useless I should be to you, seeing that neither
by training nor by nature am I fitted for the wars, and there
seems to be nought but strife in those parts."
"That comes from my fool's talk," cried the archer; "for being a
man of no learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and targets,
even as my hand does. Know then that for every parchment in
England there are twenty in France. For every statue, cut gem,
shrine, carven screen, or what else might please the eye of a
learned clerk, there are a good hundred to our one.
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