"He hath said it! Ho! ho! He hath said it! He is a wise fellow, after
all, this beardless Jack-pudding of Thorn!" cried the other, tee-heeing
with laughter till he nearly wept upon his own saddle-bow.

I began to get very angry. For we men of Thorn were not accustomed to be
so flouted by any strangers, keeping mostly our own customs, and reining
in the few strangers who ventured to visit Duke Casimir's dominions
pretty tightly. Least of all could I brook insolence from these Wendish
boors from the outskirts of half-pagan Borrussia.

"The Prince of Plassenburg hath churls among his retinue," said I, hotly,
"if they be all like you two Jacks, that cannot answer a simple question
without singing out like donkeys upon a common where there are no
thistles to keep them quiet."

Sir Thicksides, the fat jolter-head nearest me set his thumb out to
stick it into the side armor of Longlegs, his companion, who rode cheek
by jowl with him.

"Oo-oo-ahoo!" cried he, crowing with mirth, as if I had said a yet more
facetious thing. "'Tis a simple question--'Hath the Prince of Plassenburg
a Princess, and is she not oft--ahoo!' Boris, prod me with thy
lance-shaft hard, to keep me from doing myself an ill turn with this
fellow's innocence."

"Hold up, Jorian !" answered the long man, promptly pounding him on the
back with the butt of his spear. "Hold up, fat Jorian! Let not thy love
of mirth do thee any injury. For thou art a good comrade, and fools were
ever apt to divert thee too much. I have seen thee at this before--that
time we went to Wilna, and the fellow in motley gave thee griping spasms
with his tomfoolery."

Then was I mainly angry, as indeed I had sufficient occasion.

"You are but churls," I said, "and the next thing to knaves. And I will
e'en inform the Prince when we arrive what like are the men whom he sets
to escort ladies to his castle."

But though they were silenter after this, it was not from any alarm at my
words, but simply because they had laughed themselves out of ply. For as
I rode on in high dudgeon, half-way between the women and the
men-at-arms, I could see them with the corner of an eye still nudging
each other with their thumbs and throwing back their heads, and the
breeze blew me scraps of their limited conversation.

"Ho! ho! Good, was it not? 'The Prince hath a Princess, and she--' Ho!
ho! Good!"

The ridges of clay of which I have already spoken continued and increased
in size as we went on.