'Why this is a monstrous wise man,' he said, 'who yet speaks some sense.'
'In short,' the magister said, 'If you will stick to this man, you shall lose me. For I have taken beatings and borne no malice—as in the case of men with whose loves or wives I have prospered better than themselves. But that this man should miscall me and beat me for the pure frenzy of his mind, causelessly, and for the love of blows! That is unbearable. To-night I walk for the first time after five days since he did beat me. And I ask you whom you shall here find the better servant?'
His thin figure was suddenly shaking with rage.
'Why, this is conspiracy!' Katharine cried.
'A conspiracy!' Udal's voice rose up into a shriek. 'If your ladyship were a Queen I would not be a Queen's cousin's whipping post.' His arms jerked with the spasms of his rage like those of a marionette.
'A shame that learned men should be so beaten!' Margot's gruff voice uttered.
Katharine turned upon her.
'That is what made you speak e'ennow. You have been with this flibbertigibbet.'
'This is a free land,' the girl mumbled, her mild eyes sparkling with the contagious anger of her lover.
The old knight stood blinking upon Katharine.