“My master,” replied Gurth, “will take nought from the Templar save his life’s-blood. They are on terms of mortal defiance, and cannot hold courteous intercourse together.”

“Indeed!”⁠—repeated the robber, and paused after he had said the word. “And what wert thou now doing at Ashby with such a charge in thy custody?”

“I went thither to render to Isaac the Jew of York ,” replied Gurth, “the price of a suit of armour with which he fitted my master for this tournament.”

“And how much didst thou pay to Isaac?⁠—Methinks, to judge by weight, there is still two hundred zecchins in this pouch.”

“I paid to Isaac,” said the Saxon, “eighty zecchins, and he restored me a hundred in lieu thereof.”