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I have to flyto Paris to find a well-turned sonnet. I can offer you better
hospitality, sir, than a bed by the fire. The ice was clearly too thin, and the
most heedless feltthe need of wary walking.
The landlord took himby the arm,
and pointed beyond the stream to the tree-clad hills. Is not that the character
of him who nowcalls himself the rightful King of England? The guide haltedand
three times gave a call like that of a nesting redshank. I will try others, and
he sang: Three naked men we be, Stark aneath the blackthorn tree. But our
titlesare as many as the by-names of Jupiter. A big fireof logs and brushwood
was burning, and round it sat half a dozenmen, engaged in cooking. Thesituation
so far transcended his experience that his orderly worldseemed to melt into
shadows.
It looked as if he had found an ill-boding sanctuary. The great men
have too much to lose and the plain folkare careless about the whole quarrel.
The wild is yours, by birthright and training and choice.
In the benign weather
the events of the night before seemeda fantastic dream.
A guinea might have
placated him, but thetraveller was not accustomed to bribe.
You are about to
beat at a barred andbolted door. But let me tell you, sir, you have arrived in
a curst inconvenienthour. I touch you, thefiddler said, but not closely.
This
time, he said, Itouch you at the heart.
Hed be safe, said one, though Lord
Abingdon and his moor-drivers was prancing up at Beckley.
For you must know,
sir, that I have lost all mypoets.
Suffer me to introduce youto the company. To
Alastair, absorbed in his errand, the scene was purelyphantasmal.
It has seen
priest turn to presbyter and presbyter toparson and has only smiled.
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