f the three wandering
orders--Dominicans in black, Carmelites in white and Franciscans in
gray. There was no love lost between the cloistered monks and the free
friars, each looking on the other as a rival who took from him the
oblations of the faithful; so they passed on the high road as cat passes
dog, with eyes askance and angry faces.

Then besides the men of the church there were the men of trade, the
merchant in dusty broadcloth and Flanders hat riding at the head of
his line of pack-horses. He carried Cornish tin, Welt-country wool,
or Sussex iron if he traded eastward, or if his head should be turned
westward then he bore with him the velvets of Genoa, the ware of Venice,
the wine of France, or the armor of Italy and Spain. Pilgrims were
everywhere, poor people for the most part, plodding wearily along with
trailing feet and bowed heads, thick staves in their hands and bundles
over their shoulders. Here and there on a gaily caparisoned palfrey, or
in the greater luxury of a horse-litter, some West-country lady might be
seen making her easy way to the shrine of Saint Thomas.

Besides all these a constant stream of strange vagabonds drifted along
the road: minstrels who wandered from fair to fair, a foul and pestilent
crew; jugglers and acrobats, quack doctors and tooth-drawers, students
and beggars, free workmen in search of better wages, and escaped
bondsmen who would welcome any wages at all. Such was the throng which
set the old road smoking in a haze of white dust from Winchester to the
narrow sea.

But of all the wayfarers those which interested Nigel most were
the soldiers. Several times they passed little knots of archers or
men-at-arms, veterans from France, who had received their discharge and
were now making their way to their southland homes. They were half drunk
all of them, for the wayfarers treated them to beer at the frequent
inns and ale-stakes which lined the road, so that they cheered and sang
lustily as they passed. They roared rude pleasantries at Aylward, who
turned in his saddle and shouted his opinion of them until they were out
of hearing.

Once, late in the afternoon, they overtook a body of a hundred archers
all marching together with two knights riding at their head. They were
passing from Guildford Castle to Reigate Castle, where they were in
garrison. Nigel rode with the knights for some distance, and hinted that
if either was in search of honorable advancement, or wished to do so