“Thou sayest right well, Roger, and with discretion; yet, by my spurs, a younger head had given warmer counsel! How think you, my masters, were it not a pleasant tale to tell that Reginald d’Arennes fled from the bright eyes of his bride? Yet, as thou sayest, Roger, there is danger in this adventure! Not that I heed shaft or spear, bill or battle-axe, in the hand of a Saxon; thou knowest I am no craven, Roger! But then, as thou sayest, Roger--my father, I do believe my death-wound would be his! I will return to him--yet would he be shamed by my return! I will go on--or rather, I will not; thou shalt hasten back to him, Roger, and tell him--hum! I doubt!” How long the contest might have lasted it is impossible to determine; the remaining attendants were beginning to hazard surmises respecting the eligibility of a night lodging _sub dio_, when Robin the Wily sprung with a kind of harlequin step before his patron, and, throwing himself into the attitude of a despairing maiden, sang, in a ludicrously plaintive voice, some stanzas of a popular air, which may be thus modernized:-- Oh! I am drest in my bridal vest, The feast is on the board! And whither fleeth my father’s guest? Whither Elfrida’s lord? I look to the east, and I look to the west, The evening moon is toward; But I see not yet my father’s guest, I see not Elfrida’s lord! Why am I dight in my kirtle of white, My silken snood withal? For not to-night that craven knight Will cross my father’s hall. She hath torn outright her kirtle of white, Her silken snood withal; And not to-night that craven knight Will cross her father’s hall! “I will go on to Kennet Hold,” said Reginald. There was something in the look of the page, more than in the words he uttered, which had so deeply inspired his master with that strongest of all incentives, the dread of ridicule, that his determination was now inflexible. Well was it said by the learned monk, Bedo Camerarius, “the resolution of a strong mind giveth way to argument, but the obstinacy of a weak one never!” Naylis was of the same opinion: he held another conference with his master in whispers; the result of which was that Reginald exchanged his loose robe for the rich suit of armour which was borne after him by his attendants.