“One day as he came from prayer his servants brought him a vagabond gipsy lad who had been selling songs in the village or offering them in exchange for food. This outcast was very little past his boyhood; his garments were worn, and faded with sun and rain, his feet were bare, and in his cap was fastened a bough stolen from a blossoming fruit tree.
“At that time the once persecuted had become the persecutors; coarse, bitter, and profane songs were written, and sold to be sung in taverns and at country fairs, which mocked at things which were by many people justly held sacred. Among this stroller’s songs were two which spoke profanely of Her whom the king of the little moorland village reverenced. When therefore he read them he became very angry; he bade that the songs—one and all—should be destroyed; he told his servants that the gipsy should be whipped, set in the stocks, and finally pelted from the place after being ducked in the pond which was on the village green. Then the lad begged for mercy; he pleaded that he could not read, that he knew no difference between faith and faith, but only the crafts of the wood and the lore of his people. He bought and sold in ignorance, partly because he must eat, but chiefly because he wished to buy a string of red beads for his sweetheart, which he had promised her, because she desired to hang them round her throat.
“But the devout man, being wounded by the insults to his faith, for the verses were both coarse and flippant, would not listen. The lad was punished; his songs were destroyed; and at the time of sunset he fled, followed by the hoots of the villagers, bruised, bleeding, breathless, and half drowned.
“Now a year later his judge was riding, at nightfall, through a strange district of the south, whither he had come on business. He met a sober man in the dress of a preacher, and rode with him because the hour was late and the roads dangerous because of highwaymen. After a while they began to talk of grave matters touching their faith, and the salvation of their souls. Thus it happened that very soon they quarrelled, and well nigh came to reviling each other, in speech as well as in thought, the one for a blasphemous idolater, the other for a vile heretical outcast from the faith. At last they found that, in the heat of argument, they had missed the way, and were on a swampy bridle path in the depths of a misty oak wood.
“Then they called a truce, and reflected what they should do; as they considered thus they heard one coming through the wood who whistled. Soon he drew near; it was a young man, little more than a boy; as he came nearer he began to hoot like an owl, and the owls in the wood called back to him. When he was quite near and saw the faces of the riders he seemed as though he would fly; then he pulled his cap from his head, and came towards them, pleading that he was doing no ill. The ruler of the northern village saw he was the lad whom he had caused to be punished. He saw, moreover, that the gipsy knew him; therefore he told him very sternly that if, in revenge for a well-merited punishment, he played them evil tricks and directed them wrongly he should most bitterly repent it. But when the gipsy raised his eyes to his and asked simply:
“‘Why should I lie to you, sir, about the way?’ he felt ashamed and was silent. Then the preacher asked if there was any house at hand where they might purchase food and lodging. The gipsy answered:
“‘Good gentlemen, there is a farm a mile hence where this morning the farmer set his dog at me, thinking I would rob his hen-roost; when the dog did not bite me he kicked him. But he will gladly receive two worthy gentlemen with purses. Shall I guide you?’
“‘Guide us,’ said the preacher, ‘and we will pay you.’ So the boy went before them whistling. He was a wonderful whistler, and he seemed to have bat’s eyes that could see in the dark.
“Presently the man who had so severely condemned him called to him.
“‘Come here,’ he said, ‘and walk at my horse’s head.’