'I have heard of these Errantry books,' he said. 'In my day there were none such, and now I have no letters.'
'How, then, do you pass the long days of peace,' Katharine asked, 'if you neither drink nor dice?'
He answered: 'In telling of old tales and teaching their paces to the King's horses.'
He drew himself up a little. He would have her understand that he was not a horse leech: but there was in these four-footed beasts a certain love for him, so that Richmond, the King's favourite gelding, would stand still to be bled if he but laid his hand on the great creature's withers to calm him. These animals he loved, since he grew old and might not follow arguments and disputations of hic and hoc. 'There were none such in my day. But a good horse is the same from year's end to year's end....'
'Will you carry a letter for me?' Katharine asked.
'I would have you let me show you some of his Highness' beasts,' he added. 'I breed them to the manage myself. You shall find none that step more proudly in Christendom or Heathenasse.'
'Why, I believe you,' she answered. Suddenly she asked: 'You have ridden as knight errant?'
He said: 'For three weeks only. Then the Scots came on too thick and fast to waste time.' His dark eyes blinked and his broad lips moved humorously with his beard. 'I swore to do service to any lady; pray you let me serve you.'
'You can do me a service,' she said.
He moved his hand to silence her.