no man so hard-hearted nor so hard but he should have
been afeard. Then said the fiend: Thou hast travailed me greatly; now
tell me what thou wilt with me. I will, said the good man, that thou
tell me how my fellow became dead, and whether he be saved or damned.
Then he said with an horrible voice: He is not lost but saved. How may
that be? said the good man; it seemed to me that he lived not well, for
he brake his order for to wear a shirt where he ought to wear none, and
who that trespasseth against our order doth not well. Not so, said the
fiend, this man that lieth here dead was come of a great lineage.
And there was a lord that hight the Earl de Vale, that held great war
against this man's nephew, the which hight Aguarus. And so this Aguarus
saw the earl was bigger than he. Then he went for to take counsel of his
uncle, the which lieth here dead as ye may see. And then he asked leave,
and went out of his hermitage for to maintain his nephew against the
mighty earl; and so it happed that this man that lieth here dead did so
much by his wisdom and hardiness that the earl was taken, and three of
his lords, by force of this dead man.

CHAPTER II. Of a dead man, how men would have hewn him, and it would not
be, and how Sir Launcelot took the hair of the dead man.

THEN was there peace betwixt the earl and this Aguarus, and great surety
that the earl should never war against him. Then this dead man that here
lieth came to this hermitage again; and then the earl made two of his
nephews for to be avenged upon this man. So they came on a day, and
found this dead man at the sacring of his mass, and they abode him till
he had said mass. And then they set upon him and drew out swords to have
slain him; but there would no sword bite on him more than upon a gad
of steel, for the high Lord which he served He him preserved. Then made
they a great fire, and did off all his clothes, and the hair off his
back. And then this dead man hermit said unto them: Ween you to burn me?
It shall not lie in your power nor to perish me as much as a thread, an
there were any on my body. No? said one of them, it shall be assayed.
And then they despoiled him, and put upon him this shirt, and cast him
in a fire, and there he lay all that night till it was day in that fire,
and was not dead, and so in the morn I came and found him dead; but I
found neither thread nor skin tamed, and so took him out of the fire
with great fear, and laid him here