is his saying, that 'a king without letters is a crowned ass?' [58] When
the king is an ass, asinine are his subjects. Wherefore go to school,
speak respectfully of thy betters, the monks and shavelings, who with us
are often brave captains and sage councillors,--and learn that a full
head makes a weighty hand."

"Thy name, young knight?" said the ecclesiastic, in Norman French, though
with a slight foreign accent.

"I can give it thee," said the giant, speaking aloud for the first time,
in the same language, and in a rough voice, which a quick ear might have
detected as disguised,--"I can describe to thee name, birth, and quality.
By name, this youth is Guillaume Mallet, sometimes styled De Graville,
because our Norman gentilhommes, forsooth, must always now have a 'de'
tacked to their names; nevertheless he hath no other right to the
seigneurie of Graville, which appertains to the head of his house, than
may be conferred by an old tower on one corner of the demesnes so
designated, with lands that would feed one horse and two villeins--if
they were not in pawn to a Jew for moneys to buy velvet mantelines and a
chain of gold. By birth, he comes from Mallet [59], a bold Norwegian in
the fleet of Rou the Sea-king; his mother was a Frank woman, from whom he
inherits his best possessions--videlicet, a shrewd wit, and a railing
tongue. His qualities are abstinence, for he eateth nowhere save at the
cost of another--some Latin, for he was meant for a monk, because he
seemed too slight of frame for a warrior--some courage, for in spite of
his frame he slew three Burgundians with his own hand; and Duke William,
among their foolish acts, spoilt a friar sans tache, by making a knight
sans terre; and for the rest--"

"And for the rest," interrupted the Sire de Graville, turning white with
wrath, but speaking in a low repressed voice, "were it not that Duke
William sate yonder, thou shouldst have six inches of cold steel in thy
huge carcase to digest thy stolen dinner, and silence thy unmannerly
tongue.--"

"For the rest," continued the giant indifferently, and as if he had not
heard the interruption; "for the rest, he only resembles Achilles, in
being impiger iracundus. Big men can quote Latin as well as little ones,
Messire Mallet the beau clerc!"

Mallet's hand was on his dagger; and his eye dilated like that of the
panther before he springs; but fortunately, at that moment, the deep
sonorous voice of William, accustom