“Why, thou fool,” answered the Captain, “is he not poor and disinherited as we are?⁠—Doth he not win his substance at the sword’s point as we do?⁠—Hath he not beaten Front-de-Boeuf and Malvoisin, even as we would beat them if we could? Is he not the enemy to life and death of Brian de Bois-Guilbert, whom we have so much reason to fear? And were all this otherwise, wouldst thou have us show a worse conscience than an unbeliever, a Hebrew Jew?”

“Nay, that were a shame,” muttered the other fellow; “and yet, when I served in the band of stout old Gandelyn, we had no such scruples of conscience. And this insolent peasant⁠—he too, I warrant me, is to be dismissed scatheless?”

“Not if thou canst scathe him,” replied the Captain.⁠—“Here, fellow,” continued he, addressing Gurth, “canst thou use the staff, that thou starts to it so readily?”

“I think,” said Gurth, “thou shouldst be best able to reply to that question.”