"Ha!" said the other, "that was a sheer knock. I thought it had finished you, to be plain. But do not lay it to my door. I fight truer than that."
"Truly enough you have fought me this night," Prosper allowed heartily, "and I ask no better. But will you now tell me one thing about which I have been curious ever since our encounter in this place a year ago?"
"What is it?"
"Your arms—the blazon—do you bear them as of right?"
"I bear them by the right a fighter has. They have carried me far, and done my work."
"They are not of your family?"
"My family? Messire, you should know that a monk carries no arms. My family, moreover, was not knightly, till I made it knightly."
"The arms you assumed with your new profession?"
"I did."
"May I know whence you took them?"