“Not know him!” replied the friar, boldly, “I know him as well as the beggar knows his dish.”

“And what is his name, then?” demanded Locksley.

“His name,” said the hermit⁠—“his name is Sir Anthony of Scrabelstone ⁠—as if I would drink with a man, and did not know his name!”

“Thou hast been drinking more than enough, friar,” said the woodsman, “and, I fear, prating more than enough too.”

“Good yeoman,” said the knight, coming forward, “be not wroth with my merry host. He did but afford me the hospitality which I would have compelled from him if he had refused it.”

“Thou compel!” said the friar; “wait but till have changed this grey gown for a green cassock, and if I make not a quarterstaff ring twelve upon thy pate, I am neither true clerk nor good woodsman.”