Ivanhoe, Walter Scott [philippa perry book .txt] 📗

Wamba

The next that came forth, swore by blood and by nails,
Merrily sing the roundelay;
Hur’s a gentleman, God wot, and hur’s lineage was of Wales,
And where was the widow might say him nay?

Sir David ap Morgan ap Griffith ap Hugh
Ap Tudor ap Rhice, quoth his roundelay;
She said that one widow for so many was too few,
And she bade the Welshman wend his way.

But then next came a yeoman, a yeoman of Kent,
Jollily singing his roundelay;
He spoke to the widow of living and rent,
And where was the widow could say him nay?

Both

So the knight and the squire were both left in the mire,
There for to sing their roundelay;
For a yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent,
There never was a widow could say him nay.

“I would, Wamba,” said the knight, “that our host of the Trysting-tree, or the jolly Friar, his chaplain, heard this thy ditty in praise of our bluff yeoman.”

“So would not I,” said Wamba⁠—“but for the horn that hangs at your baldric.”

“Ay,” said the Knight⁠—“this is a pledge of Locksley’s goodwill, though I am not like to need it. Three mots on this bugle will, I am assured, bring round, at our need, a jolly band of yonder honest yeomen.”

“I would say, Heaven forefend,” said the Jester, “were it not that that fair gift is a pledge they would let us pass peaceably.”

“Why, what meanest thou?” said the Knight; “thinkest thou that but for this pledge of fellowship they would assault us?”

“Nay, for me I say nothing,” said Wamba; “for green trees have ears as well as stone walls. But canst thou construe me this, Sir Knight⁠—When is thy wine-pitcher and thy purse better empty than full?”

“Why, never, I think,” replied the Knight.

“Thou never deservest to have a full one in thy hand, for so simple an answer! Thou hadst best empty thy pitcher ere thou pass it to a Saxon, and leave thy money at home ere thou walk in the greenwood.”

“You hold our friends for robbers, then?” said the Knight of the Fetterlock.

“You hear me not say so, fair sir,” said Wamba; “it may relieve a man’s steed to take of his mail when he hath a long journey to make; and, certes, it may do good to the rider’s soul to ease him of that which is the root of evil; therefore will I give no hard names to those who do such services. Only I would wish my mail at home, and my purse in my chamber, when I meet with these good fellows, because it might save them some trouble.”

“We are bound to pray for them, my friend, notwithstanding the fair character thou dost afford them.”

“Pray for them with all my heart,” said Wamba; “but in the town, not in the greenwood, like the Abbot of Saint Bees, whom they caused to say mass with an old hollow oak-tree for his stall.”

“Say as thou list, Wamba,” replied the Knight, “these yeomen did thy master Cedric yeomanly service at Torquilstone.”

“Ay, truly,” answered Wamba; “but that was in the fashion of their trade with Heaven.”

“Their trade, Wamba! how mean you by that?” replied his companion.

“Marry, thus,” said the Jester. “They make up a balanced account with Heaven, as our old cellarer used to call his ciphering, as fair as Isaac the Jew keeps with his debtors, and, like him, give out a very little, and take large credit for doing so; reckoning, doubtless, on their own behalf the sevenfold usury which the blessed text hath promised to charitable loans.”

“Give me an example of your meaning, Wamba⁠—I know nothing of ciphers or rates of usage,” answered the Knight.

“Why,” said Wamba, “an your valour be so dull, you will please to learn that those honest fellows balance a good deed with one not quite so laudable; as a crown given to a begging friar with an hundred byzants taken from a fat abbot, or a wench kissed in the greenwood with the relief of a poor widow.”

“Which of these was the good deed, which was the felony?” interrupted the Knight.

“A good gibe! a good gibe!” said Wamba; “keeping witty company sharpeneth the apprehension. You said nothing so well, Sir Knight, I will be sworn, when you held drunken vespers with the bluff Hermit.⁠—But to go on. The merry-men of the forest set off the building of a cottage with the burning of a castle⁠—the thatching of a choir against the robbing of a church⁠—the setting free a poor prisoner against the murder of a proud sheriff; or, to come nearer to our point, the deliverance of a Saxon franklin against the burning alive of a Norman baron. Gentle thieves they are, in short, and courteous robbers; but it is ever the luckiest to meet with them when they are at the worst.”

“How so, Wamba?” said the Knight.

“Why, then they have some compunction, and are for making up matters with Heaven. But when they have struck an even balance, Heaven help them with whom they next open the account! The travellers who first met them after their good service at Torquilstone would have a woeful flaying.⁠—And yet,” said Wamba, coming close up to the Knight’s side, “there be companions who are far more dangerous for travellers to meet than yonder outlaws.”

“And who may they be, for you have neither bears nor wolves, I trow?” said the Knight.

“Marry, sir, but we have Malvoisin’s men-at-arms,” said Wamba; “and let me tell you, that, in time of civil war, a halfscore of these is worth a band of wolves at any time. They are now expecting their harvest, and are reinforced with the soldiers that escaped from Torquilstone. So that, should we meet with a band of them, we are like to pay for our feats of arms.⁠—Now, I pray you, Sir Knight, what would you do if we met two of them?”

“Pin