annikin in
and taken a mouthful, which set him coughing and choking, with the tears
running down his cheeks. Further on he met a sturdy black-bearded man,
mounted on a brown horse, with a rosary in his right hand and a long
two-handed sword jangling against his stirrup-iron. By his black robe
and the eight-pointed cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne recognized him
as one of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, whose
presbytery was at Baddesley. He held up two fingers as he passed, with a
"_Benedic, fili mi!_" whereat Alleyne doffed hat and bent knee, looking
with much reverence at one who had devoted his life to the overthrow of
the infidel. Poor simple lad! he had not learned yet that what men are
and what men profess to be are very wide asunder, and that the Knights
of St. John, having come into large part of the riches of the ill-fated
Templars, were very much too comfortable to think of exchanging their
palace for a tent, or the cellars of England for the thirsty deserts of
Syria. Yet ignorance may be more precious than wisdom, for Alleyne as he
walked on braced himself to a higher life by the thought of this other's
sacrifice, and strengthened himself by his example which he could scarce
have done had he known that the Hospitaller's mind ran more upon malmsey
than on Mamelukes, and on venison rather than victories.

As he pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the region of
Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south with the sun shining
through the chinks of it. A few great drops came pattering loudly
down, and then in a moment the steady swish of a brisk shower, with
the dripping and dropping of the leaves. Alleyne, glancing round for
shelter, saw a thick and lofty holly-bush, so hollowed out beneath that
no house could have been drier. Under this canopy of green two men were
already squatted, who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join
them. As he approached he saw that they had five dried herrings laid
out in front of them, with a great hunch of wheaten bread and a leathern
flask full of milk, but instead of setting to at their food they
appeared to have forgot all about it, and were disputing together with
flushed faces and angry gestures. It was easy to see by their dress and
manner that they were two of those wandering students who formed about
this time so enormous a multitude in every country in Europe. The one
was long and thin, with melancholy features, while the other