Let me
find some soothing simples and lay them on the weal to draw the
sting."
"Nay, there is but one thing that can draw the sting, and that
the future may bring to me. But, clerk, if you would see your
brother you must on, for there is a meeting to-day, and his merry
men will await him ere the shadows turn from west to east. I
pray you not to hold him back, for it would be an evil thing if
all the stout lads were there and the leader a-missing. I would
come with you, but sooth to say I am stationed here and may not
move. The path over yonder, betwixt the oak and the thorn,
should bring you out into his nether field."
Alleyne lost no time in following the directions of the wild,
masterless man, whom he left among the trees where he had found
him. His heart was the heavier for the encounter, not only
because all bitterness and wrath were abhorrent to his gentle
nature, but also because it disturbed him to hear his brother
spoken of as though he were a chief of outlaws or the leader of a
party against the state. Indeed, of all the things which he had
seen yet in the world to surprise him there was none more strange
than the hate which class appeared to bear to class.
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