"
"Dog!" cried the furious Socman, "there is no man in the south
who can say as much."
"Yet can I," said Alleyne smiling; "for indeed I also am the son
of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane, by
the only daughter of Aluric of Brockenhurst. Surely, dear
brother," he continued, holding out his hand, "you have a warmer
greeting than this for me. There are but two boughs left upon
this old, old Saxon trunk."
His elder brother dashed his hand aside with an oath, while an
expression of malignant hatred passed over his passion-drawn
features. "You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then," said he.
"I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner
too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word.
Thy father, shaveling, with all his faults, had a man's heart;
and there were few who could look him in the eyes on the day of
his anger. But you! Look there, rat, on yonder field where the
cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on the orchard hard by
the church. Do you know that all these were squeezed out of your
dying father by greedy priests, to pay for your upbringing in the
cloisters? I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may
snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand's turn.
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