r toys together. Go to! He was no fool who first called
you 'leeches.' Sang-sues! va!"

Gerard groaned. "By the holy virgin, I wish you were both at Jericho,
bellowing.'

"Thank you comrade. Then I'll bark no more, but at need I'll bite. If
he has a lance, I have a sword; if he bleeds you, I'll bleed him. The
moment his lance pricks your skin, little one, my sword-hilt knocks
against his ribs; I have said it."

And Denys turned pale, folded his arms, and looked gloomy and dangerous.

Gerard sighed wearily. "Now, as all this is about me, give me leave to
say a word."

"Ay! let the young man choose life or death for himself."

Gerard then indirectly rebuked his noisy counsellors by contrast and
example. He spoke with unparalleled calmness, sweetness, and gentleness.
And these were the words of Gerard the son of Eli. "I doubt not you both
mean me well; but you assassinate me between you. Calmness and quiet are
everything to me; but you are like two dogs growling over a bone. And
in sooth, bone I should be, did this uproar last long."

There was a dead silence, broken only by the silvery voice of Gerard,
as he lay tranquil, and gazed calmly at the ceiling, and trickled into
words.

"First, venerable sir, I thank you for coming to see me, whether from
humanity, or in the way of honest gain; all trades must live.

"Your learning, reverend sir, seems great, to me at least, and for your
experience, your age voucheth it.

"You say you have bled many, and of these many, many have not died
thereafter, but lived, and done well. I must needs believe you."

The physician bowed; Denys grunted.

"Others, you say, you have bled, and-they are dead. I must needs believe
you.

"Denys knows few things compared with you, but he knows them well. He is
a man not given to conjecture. This I myself have noted. He says he has
seen the fevered and blooded for the most part die; the fevered and not
blooded live. I must needs believe him.

"Here, then, all is doubt.

"But thus much is certain; if I be bled, I must pay you a fee, and be
burnt and excruciated with a hot iron, who am no felon.

"Pay a certain price in money and anguish for a doubtful remedy, that
will I never.

"Next to money and ease, peace and quiet are certain goods, above all in
a sick-room; but 'twould seem men cannot argue medicine without heat and
raised voices; therefore, sir, I will essay a little sleep, and Denys
will go forth and gaze on the females of