Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/317

 handicraftsmen! And he looked on his guest as if he deemed he should please him by that word; but the other shook his head and said: So should I not be glad; for Sir Godrick is both fearless and wise, and of good heart to such as need help. Yet I doubt me that he will be overthrown at last, such might as is arrayed against him. Forsooth could he get to him two or three like to himself, yea, or were it only one, then might he endure; but where shall he find such an one?

Quoth the Chapman: If ye bear the man such love and honour, mightest not thou thyself give thyself to him and be such an one to him as thou tellest of? The Knight laughed: Chapman, said he, of such mere skull-splitters as I be hath he enough amongst his men-at-arms, who, I must tell thee, be nowise rascaile, but valiant and well-ordered warriors. What he needeth is one fulfilled of the wisdom of war; yea, and of peace also, so as to know when to hold fast and when to let go, when to press hard on the foe and when to cast the golden bridge before them. Of such wisdom have I nought, and know little but of hard hitting and how to keep the face to the foe in the stour. Moreover, though in a way I wish him good-hap, yet is it such good-hap as one wishes a man who must needs be a foe. For I must tell thee that I am of the Barons' company and against Sir Godrick. Yet this I know, that if he fall at the last it shall not be till after he hath put us to the worse more than once or twice.