“You may try the truth of that for yourself some day,” thought Hereward.
“Does any one here talk English? Let us question the fellow,” said Earl Warrenne.
“Hereward? Hereward? Who wants to know about that villain?” answered the potter, as soon as he was asked in English. “Would to Heaven he were here, and I could see some of you noble knights and earls paying him for me; for I owe him more than ever I shall pay myself.”
“What does he mean?”
“He came out of the isle ten days ago, nigh on to evening, and drove off a cow of mine and four sheep, which was all my living, noble knights, save these pots.”
“And where is he since?”
“In the isle, my lords, wellnigh starved, and his folk falling away from him daily from hunger and ague-fits. I doubt if there be a hundred sound men left in Ely.”
“Have you been in thither, then, villain?”
“Heaven forbid! I in Ely? I in the wolf’s den? If I went in with naught but my skin, they would have it off me before I got out again. If your lordships would but come down, and make an end of him once for all; for he is a great tyrant and terrible, and devours us poor folk like so many mites in cheese.”
“Take this babbler into the kitchen, and feed him,” quoth Earl Warrenne; and so the colloquy ended.