"Thou liest, Jew, and thou knowest thou dost," said the Friar; "I will remind thee but of one word of our conference—thou didst promise to give all thy substance to our holy Order."
"So help me the promise, fair sirs," said Isaac, more alarmed than even before, "as no such sounds ever crossed my lips! Alas! I am an aged beggar'd man—I fear me a childless—have ruth on me, and let me go!"
"Nay," said the Friar, "if thou dost retract vows made in favour of holy Church, thou must do penance."
Accordingly he raised his halbert, and would have laid the staff of it lustily on the Jew's shoulders, had not the Black Knight stopped the blow, and thereby transferred the Holy Clerk's resentment to himself.
"By Saint Thomas of Kent," said he, "an I buckle to my gear, I will teach thee to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine iron case there."
"Nay, be not wroth with me," said the knight; "thou knowest I am thy sworn friend and comrade."
