best possessions--videlicet, a shrewd wit, and a railing tongue. His
qualities are abstinence, for he eateth nowhere save at the cost of
another--some Latin, for he was meant for a monk, because he seemed
too slight of frame for a warrior--some courage, for in spite of his
frame he slew three Burgundians with his own hand; and Duke William,
among their foolish acts, spoilt a friar sans tache, by making a
knight sans terre; and for the rest--"

"And for the rest," interrupted the Sire de Graville, turning white
with wrath, but speaking in a low repressed voice, "were it not that
Duke William sate yonder, thou shouldst have six inches of cold steel
in thy huge carcase to digest thy stolen dinner, and silence thy
unmannerly tongue.--"

"For the rest," continued the giant indifferently, and as if he had
not heard the interruption; "for the rest, he only resembles Achilles,
in being impiger iracundus. Big men can quote Latin as well as little
ones, Messire Mallet the beau clerc!"

Mallet's hand was on his dagger; and his eye dilated like that of the
panther before he springs; but fortunately, at that moment, the deep
sonorous voice of William, accustomed to send its sounds down the
ranks of an army, rolled clear through the assemblage, though pitched
little above its ordinary key:--

"Fair is your feast, and bright your wine, Sir King and brother mine!
But I miss here what king and knight hold as the salt of the feast and
the perfume to the wine: the lay of the minstrel. Beshrew me, but
both Saxon and Norman are of kindred stock, and love to hear in hall
and bower the deeds of their northern fathers. Crave I therefore from