'Never you fear, sir! Here are Hob Halstead and I, able to train any
young noble in what behoves him most to know.'

'Yea, in arms and sports. They must be learnt I know, but a noble
needs booklore too,' said the boy. 'Cannot this same hermit help me?
Sir Lancelot--'

Simon Bunce interrupted sharply. 'Sir Lancelot knows nought of the
hermit! He is--he is--a holy man.'

'A priest,' broke in Dolly, 'a priest!'

'No such thing, dame, no clerk at all, I tell thee. And ye lads had
best not molest him! He is for ever busy with his prayers, and wants
none near him.'

Hal was disappointed, for his mind was far less set on the exercises
of a young knight than on the desire to acquire knowledge, that study
which seemed to be thrown away on the unwilling ears of Anne St.
John.

Hob had been awakened by contact with his lady and her husband, as
well as with the old comrade, Simon Bunce, to perceive that if there
were any chance of the young Lord Clifford's recovering his true
position he must not be allowed to lounge and slouch about like
Piers, and he was continually calling him to order, making him sit
and stand upright, as he had seen the young pages forced to do at the
castle, learn how to handle a sword, and use the long stick which was
the substitute for a lance, and to mount and sit on the old pony as a
knight should do, till poor Hal had no peace, and was glad to get