“Never mind whom,” answered Gurth, who
had now got his herd before him, and, with the aid
of Fangs, was driving them down one of the long dim
vistas which we have endeavoured to describe.
“Nay, but I must see the riders,” answered
Wamba; “perhaps they are come from Fairy-land
with a message from King Oberon.”
“A murrain take thee,” rejoined the swine-herd;
“wilt thou talk of such things, while a terrible
storm of thunder and lightning is raging within a
few miles of us? Hark, how the thunder rumbles!
and for summer rain, I never saw such broad downright
flat drops fall out of the clouds; the oaks, too, notwithstanding
the calm weather, sob and creak with their great boughs
as if announcing a tempest. Thou canst play the
rational if thou wilt; credit me for once, and let
us home ere the storm begins to rage, for the night
will be fearful.”
Wamba seemed to feel the force of this appeal, and
accompanied his companion, who began his journey after
catching up a long quarter-staff which lay upon the
grass beside him. This second Eumaeus strode
hastily down the forest glade, driving before him,
with the assistance of Fangs, the whole herd of his
inharmonious charge.
A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie,
An outrider that loved venerie;
A manly man, to be an Abbot able,
Full many a daintie horse had he in stable:
And whan he rode, men might his bridle hear
Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear,
And eke as loud, as doth the chapell bell,
There as this lord was keeper of the cell.
Chaucer.
Notwithstanding the occasional exhortation and chiding
of his companion, the noise of the horsemen’s
feet continuing to approach, Wamba could not be prevented
from lingering occasionally on the road, upon every
pretence which occurred; now catching from the hazel
a cluster of half-ripe nuts, and now turning his head
to leer after a cottage maiden who crossed their path.
The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them on the
road.
Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two
who rode foremost seemed to be persons of considerable
importance, and the others their attendants.
It was not difficult to ascertain the condition and
character of one of these personages. He was
obviously an ecclesiastic of high rank; his dress was
that of a Cistercian Monk, but composed of materials
much finer than those which the rule of that order
admitted. His mantle and hood were of the best
Flanders cloth, and fell in ample, and not ungraceful
folds, around a handsome, though somewhat corpulent
person. His countenance bore as little the marks
of self-denial, as his habit indicated contempt of
worldly splendour. His features might have been
called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house
of his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates
the cautious voluptuary. In other respects, his
profession and situation had taught him a ready command
