"You were wrong, Wulf; it is not good always to say what we think;
and you, as my page, should bear in mind that here at court it
behoves you to behave and to speak not as a headstrong boy, but as
one whose words may, rightly or wrongly, be considered as an echo
of those you may have heard from me. And now to the third charge,
that you withstood the prelate; a matter that, in the king's eyes,
is a very serious one."

"The bishop would give ear to nought I had to say. He listened to
his own page's account and not to mine, and when I said in my defence
that though I did use the words about the Normans, I did so merely
as one boy quarrelling with the other, he said I ought to have my
ears slit. Surely, my lord, a free-born thane is not to be spoken
to even by a Norman bishop as if he were a Norman serf. I only
replied that before there was any slitting of ears your lordship
would have a say in the matter. So far, I admit, I did withstand
the bishop, and I see not how I could have made other reply."

"It would have been better to have held your peace altogether,
Wulf."

"It would, my lord, but it would also surely have been better had
the bishop abstained from talking about slitting ears."

"That would have been better also, but two wrongs do not make a
right. I was present when the bishop made his complaint, and upon
my inquiring more into the matter, his version was somewhat similar
to yours. I then pointed out to him that if holy bishops lost their
tempers and used threats that were beyond their power to carry into