The friars, it may be well supposed, and such of the king's men
as escaped unhurt from the affray, found their spirits a cup too low,
and kept the flask moving from noon till night. The peaceful brethren,
unused to the tumult of war, had undergone, from fear and discomposure,
an exhaustion of animal spirits that required extraordinary refection.
During the repast, they interrogated Sir Ralph Montfaucon, the leader
of the soldiers, respecting the nature of the earl's offence.
"A complication of offences," replied Sir Ralph, "superinduced on the original
basis of forest-treason. He began with hunting the king's deer, in despite
of all remonstrance; followed it up by contempt of the king's mandates,
and by armed resistance to his power, in defiance of all authority;
and combined with it the resolute withholding of payment of certain moneys
to the abbot of Doncaster, in denial of all law; and has thus made himself the
declared enemy of church and state, and all for being too fond of venison."
And the knight helped himself to half a pasty.
"A heinous offender," said a little round oily friar,
appropriating the portion of pasty which Sir Ralph had left.
"The earl is a worthy peer," said the tall friar whom we have already
mentioned in the chapel scene, "and the best marksman in England."
"Why this is flat treason, brother Michael," said the little round friar,
"to call an attainted traitor a worthy peer.
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