CHAPTER II.
A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie,
An outrider that loved venerie;
A manly man, to be an Abbot able,
Full many a daintie horse had he in stable:
And whan he rode, men might his bridle hear
Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear,
And eke as loud, as doth the chapell bell,
There as this lord was keeper of the cell.
Chaucer.
Notwithstanding the occasional exhortation
and chiding of his companion, the noise of the
horsemen's feet continuing to approach, Wamba
could not be prevented from lingering occasionally on the road upon every pretence which occurred; now catching from the hazel a cluster of
half-ripe nuts, and now turning his head to leer
after a cottage maiden who crossed their path.
The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them
upon the road.
