Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 2).djvu/60

 est composure, without taking any further notice of the stranger, so completely ignorant was he of the laws of hospitality. But, as our hero continued to threaten and thunder at the door, the boor was obliged to get rid of him to enjoy his own night’s rest, and therefore broke his silence: “If you wish to get a good supper, friend, and a soft bed, you would be sadly disappointed in my hut, but ride through the little wood on your left hand, and you will come to the castle of Sir Egbert of Bronkhurst, who welcomes every traveller as a knight hospitaller does the pilgrims from the Holy Land. Sometimes, indeed, he is seized with a fit of madness, and then he never parts with his guests without giving them first a sound drubbing. If you will venture on that risk, you will find in other respects a kind reception.

Frank was for a while uncertain how to act, but at length he resolved to run the risk of the beating rather than remain the whole night in his wet clothes. There was little to choose, he thought, even if he should get into the hut, be-