Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/87

 a sword and buckler, and on the other a well-appointed dagger, keen as a spear. At his breast hung a silver ornament, also a horn, the girdle or baldrick of which was green. He was a thorough forester, and skilful in all manner of wood-craft.

There was also in our company a Nun, a, called Madam Eglantine, a demure and simply-smiling lady, whose sharpest speech was,—'By Saint Eloi!' She could chaunt by heart the whole of the divine service, sweetly twanging it through her nose. She was mistress of the French language, as it is spoken at the school of Stratford-le-Bow; but the French of Paris was to her unknown. Her conduct at meals was precisely well-bred and delicate, all her anxiety being to display a courteous and stately deportment, and to be regarded in return with esteem and reverence. So charitable and piteous was her nature, that a dead or bleeding mouse in a trap would wring her heart. She kept several little dogs, which