eck much of your purchase. It would befit
your greatness if these dwellings were handed over to me, for I have
nowhere to lay my head." The king opened his eyes and stared at his
petitioner. "Thou wouldst be a fine landlord. Dost thou think we cannot
build thee a new house? What on earth shouldest thou do with these?" "It
does not befit royal generosity to ask questions about trifles. This is
my first petition to thee, and why, when it is so small, should I be
kept waiting about it?" The king merrily answered, "Hear the fellow!
Almost using violence too, in a strange land. What would he do if he
used force, when he gets so much out of us by words? Lest we should be
served worse by him, he must have it so." The cat was soon out of the
bag. Each house was presented back to the man who had sold it, either to
sell or to remove as he chose, lest in any way Jerusalem should be
built with blood.

Then the building began, but no more; for the ten white pounds did not
go far, and the workmen angrily and abusively asked for wages. A
deputation went off to Henry, who was collecting troops and dismissing
them, ordering, codifying, defending, enlarging and strengthening his
heterogeneous empire. Now he was on one side of the sea, now on the
other. He promised succour, and the brethren brought back--promises. The
work stopped, and the Prior endured in grim silence. Another embassage
is sent, and again the lean wallets return still flabby. Then the
brethren began to turn their anger against the Prior. He was slothful
and neglectful for not approaching the king in person (although the man
was abroad and busy). Brother Gerard, a white-haired gentleman, "very
successful in speaking to the great and to princes," fell upon his
superior for glozing with a hard-hearted king and not telling him
instantly to complete the buildings under pain of a Carthusian stampede.
Not only was the Order wronged, but themselves were made fools of, who
had stuck so long there without being able even to finish their mere
dolls' houses. Brother Gerard himself would be delighted to din
something into the King's ears in the presence of his prior. To this all
the brethren said "Aye." Hugh gratefully accepted their counsel, and
added, "All the same, Brother Gerard, you will have to see to it that
you are as modest as you are free in your discourse. It may well be,
that in order to be able to know us well, that sagaciously clever and
inscrutable minded prince preten