If you be a man of God, you will counsel him
accordingly."
"Alas! alas!" said the Abbot, with a shudder, "that, ever since Adam's
fall, sinful man should talk of nothing but slaying and being slain; not
knowing that his soul is slain already by sin, and that a worse death
awaits him hereafter than that death of the body of which he makes so
light!"
"A very good sermon, my Lord Abbot, to listen to next Sunday morning: but
we are hungry and wet and desperate just now; and if you do not settle
this matter for us, our blood will be on your head,--and may be your own
likewise."
The Abbot rode out of the water faster than he had ridden in, and a fresh
consultation ensued, after which the boy, with a warning gesture to his
companions, turned and galloped away through the sand-hills.
"He is gone to his grandfather himself, I verily believe," quoth Hereward.
They waited for some two hours, unmolested; and, true to their policy of
seeming recklessness, shifted and dried themselves as well as they could,
ate what provisions were unspoilt by the salt water, and, broaching the
last barrel of ale, drank healths to each other and to the Flemings on
shore.
At last down rode, with the boy, a noble-looking man, and behind him more
knights and men-at-arms. He announced himself as Manasses, Chatelain of
St.
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