"You are pleasant, Sire Mallet," said Godrith, reddening; "but I know
well that Latin is only fit for monks and shavelings; and little enow
even they have to boast of."

The Norman's lip curled in disdain. "Latin!--O, Godree, bien aime!--
Latin is the tongue of Caesars and senators, fortes conquerors and
preux chevaliers. Knowest thou not that Duke William the dauntless at
eight years old had the Comments of Julius Caesar by heart?--and that
it is his saying, that 'a king without letters is a crowned ass?' [58]
When the king is an ass, asinine are his subjects. Wherefore go to
school, speak respectfully of thy betters, the monks and shavelings,
who with us are often brave captains and sage councillors,--and learn
that a full head makes a weighty hand."

"Thy name, young knight?" said the ecclesiastic, in Norman French,
though with a slight foreign accent.

"I can give it thee," said the giant, speaking aloud for the first
time, in the same language, and in a rough voice, which a quick ear
might have detected as disguised,--"I can describe to thee name,
birth, and quality. By name, this youth is Guillaume Mallet,
sometimes styled De Graville, because our Norman gentilhommes,
forsooth, must always now have a 'de' tacked to their names;
nevertheless he hath no other right to the seigneurie of Graville,
which appertains to the head of his house, than may be conferred by an
old tower on one corner of the demesnes so designated, with lands that
would feed one horse and two villeins--if they were not in pawn to a
Jew for moneys to buy velvet mantelines and a chain of gold. By
birth, he comes from Mallet [59], a bold Norwegian in the fleet of Rou
the Sea-king; his mother was a Frank woman, from whom he inherits his