"Sir Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, with his noble and knightly allies and confederates, receives no defiances at the hands of slaves, bondsmen, or fugitives. If the person calling himself the Black Knight hath indeed a claim to the honors of chivalry, he ought to know that he stands degraded by his present association and has no right to ask reckoning at the hands of good men of noble blood. Touching the prisoners we have made, we do in Christian charity require you to send a man of religion to receive their confession and reconcile them with God; since it is our fixed intention to execute them this morning before noon, so that their heads, being placed on the battlements, shall show to all men how lightly we esteem those who have bestirred themselves in their rescue. Wherefore, as above, we require you to send a priest to reconcile them with God, in doing which you shall render them the last earthly service." This letter, being folded, was delivered to the squire, and by him to the messenger who waited without, as the answer to that which he had brought. IV About one hour afterward a man arrayed in the cowl and frock of a hermit, and having his knotted cord twisted around his middle, stood before the portal of the castle of Front-de-Boeuf. The warder demanded of him his name and errand. "[v]_Pax vobiscum_," answered the priest, "I am a poor brother of the [v]Order of St. Francis who come hither to do my office to certain unhappy prisoners now secured within this castle." "Thou art a bold friar," said the warder, "to come hither, where, saving our own drunken confessor, a rooster of thy feather hath not crowed these twenty years." With these words, he carried to the hall of the castle his unwonted intelligence that a friar stood before the gate and desired admission. With no small wonder he received his master's command to admit the holy man immediately; and, having previously manned the entrance to guard against surprise, he obeyed, without farther scruple, the order given him. "Who and whence art thou, priest?" demanded Front-de-Boeuf. "_Pax vobiscum_," reiterated the priest, with trembling voice. "I am a poor servant of Saint Francis, who, traveling through this wilderness, have fallen among thieves, which thieves have sent me unto this castle in order to do my ghostly office on two persons condemned by your honorable justice." "Ay, right," answered Front-de-Boeuf; "and canst thou tell me, the number of those banditti?" "Gallant sir," said the priest, "[v]_nomen illis legio_, their name is legion." "Tell me in plain terms what numbers there are, or, priest, thy cloak and cord will ill protect thee from my wrath." "Alas!" said the friar, "[v]_cor meum eructavit_, that is to say, I was like to burst with fear! But I conceive they may be--what of yeomen, what of commons--at least five hundred men."