“But for my purpose,” said the yeoman, “thou shouldst be as well a good Englishman as a good knight; for that, which I have to speak of, concerns, indeed, the duty of every honest man, but is more especially that of a true-born native of England .”

“You can speak to no one,” replied the knight, “to whom England , and the life of every Englishman, can be dearer than to me.”