Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/229

 Quoth Osberne: One thing more I would ask yet: If those guilds of craft aforesaid should rise up against their King and the tyrants of the Porte, and they sent to thee for help, wouldst thou give them so much help as not to be against them, but let them fight it out and the mightiest to prevail? Or how much more wouldst thou give? Stood up Sir Godrick therewith and was very wroth. Said he: If these good fellows of the Lesser Crafts rise up against their lords and send to me, then if they have gotten to them so much as the littlest of the city gates, or if it be but a dromond on the river, then will I go to them with all mine, and leave house and lands behind, that we may battle it out side by side to live or die together. Or if they may not do so much as that, yet if all or any of them may win out-a-gates and turn their heads towards Longshaw, then will I ride to meet them with everything that may bear spear or axe, and I will have them home with me and arm them and clothe them and feed them and house them, and my lands shall be their lands, and bite and drop shall we share together, so long as it holds out: and a noble host shall we gather, and harry the King and his dastards till we prevail at last, and we will have a new rule of the City and a new Porte, and I will be the captain thereof if they will have it so, or else to die in the pain. Now I say this is the least that I shall do. And if any man be so bold as to tell me to my face that I will do less, I say that he lies in his throat; and that shall I prove on him, body to body.