"So, Sir Fleming," said the Castellane, "you are in no hurry, methinks, to repair to the rendezvous."
"So please you," answered the Fleming, "we were compelled to tarry, that we might load our wains with our bales of cloth and other property."
"Ha! wains?—how many wains have you brought with you?"
"Six, noble sir," replied Wilkin.
"And how many men?" demanded Raymond Berenger.
"Twelve, valiant sir," answered Flammock.
"Only two men to each baggage-wain? I wonder you would thus encumber yourself," said Berenger.
"Under your favour, sir, once more," replied Wilkin, "it is only the value which I and my comrades set upon our goods, that inclines us to defend them with our bodies; and, had we been obliged to leave our cloth to the plundering clutches of yonder vagabonds, I should have seen small policy in stopping here to give them the opportunity of adding murder to robbery. Gloucester should have been my first halting-place."
The Norman knight gazed on the Flemish artisan, for such was Wilkin Flammock, with such a mixture of surprise and contempt, as excluded indignation. "I have heard much," he said, "but this is the first time that I have heard one with a beard on his lip avouch himself a coward."
"Nor do you hear it now," answered Flammock, with the utmost composure—"I am always ready to fight for life and property; and my coming to this country, where they are both in constant danger, shows that I care not much how often I do so. But a sound skin is better than a slashed one, for all that."