“And ’twas there you learnt the French?”
“Ay, sir, from the monks.”
“Perhaps also thou hast learnt to read?” pursued the friar, with the smile with which in these days we might ask a ploughboy whether he knew Hebrew.
“A little,” said the boy modestly.
So unexpected was the answer, that the friar started back.
“Why this is amazing!” he said. “Edgar, dost thou hear?”
“Ay. He is training, no doubt, for the monastery,” said the lad carelessly, though looking at the other with amazement.
“Nay,” said the boy sturdily; “no monk’s hood for me. I would be a soldier and fight for King Edward.”
“And what knowest thou of King Edward?” inquired the friar, who evidently found amusement in questioning.
“What all the world knows,” the boy answered sturdily, “that never was a nobler king or truer Englishman.”