Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/371

Rh and beat that boy, and teach him to answer better another time.'

'If I must needs be beaten,' said Gamelin, 'you shall be the one to do it.' Yet his brother in furious passion ordered his men to bring their staves. Gamelin was aware of their coming, and, looking about him, saw a stake under a wall; and, being nimble, he leaped towards them, and drove all his brother's men in a heap. He looked like a wild lion, and laid on in good earnest; which, when his brother saw, he ran away, and locked himself in a garret;—so Gamelin with his staff made them all aghast. Then he sought his brother where he had fled, and saw him looking out of the window. 'Come down, brother,' said he, 'and I will teach you to play at buckler.' But while he held that staff he would not come near him. 'Throw away your weapon,' said he, 'and I will make peace with you and never anger you more.'—'I must needs be wroth,' said Gamelin, 'seeing that you would make your men break my bones. If it had not been for the strength of my own arm to drive them before me, they would have done me a mischief.'