ak.

"It came in this way," he said, sitting down once more: "I was passing
this way, hoping to reach Lymington ere nightfall when I came on this
red-headed knave seated even where we are sitting now. I uncovered and
louted as I passed thinking that he might be a holy man at his orisons,
but he called to me and asked me if I had heard speak of the new
indulgence in favor of the Cistercians. 'Not I,' I answered. 'Then the
worse for thy soul!' said he; and with that he broke into a long tale
how that on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it had been
decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the habit of a monk of
Beaulieu for as long as he might say the seven psalms of David should be
assured of the kingdom of Heaven. When I heard this I prayed him on
my knees that he would give me the use of his gown, which after many
contentions he at last agreed to do, on my paying him three marks
towards the regilding of the image of Laurence the martyr. Having
stripped his robe, I had no choice but to let him have the wearing of my
good leathern jerkin and hose, for, as he said, it was chilling to
the blood and unseemly to the eye to stand frockless whilst I made my
orisons. He had scarce got them on, and it was a sore labor, seeing that
my inches will scarce match my girth--he had scarce got them on, I say,
and I not yet at the end of the second psalm, when he bade me do honor
to my new dress, and with that set off down the road as fast as feet
would carry him. For myself, I could no more run than if I had been sown
in a sack; so here I sit, and here I am like to sit, before I set eyes
upon my clothes again."

"Nay, friend, take it not so sadly," said Alleyne, clapping the
disconsolate one upon the shoulder. "Canst change thy robe for a jerkin
once more at the Abbey, unless perchance you have a friend near at
hand."

"That have I," he answered, "and close; but I care not to go nigh him in
this plight, for his wife hath a gibing tongue, and will spread the
tale until I could not show my face in any market from Fordingbridge
to Southampton. But if you, fair sir, out of your kind charity would be
pleased to go a matter of two bow-shots out of your way, you would do me
such a service as I could scarce repay."

"With all my heart," said Alleyne readily.

"Then take this pathway on the left, I pray thee, and then the
deer-track which passes on the right. You will then see under a great
beech-tree the hut of a charcoal-