The White Company | Page 7

There is the playing of the citole and the rebeck. Our choir will
be dumb without you. You carve too?"

The youth's pale face flushed with the pride of the skilled workman.
"Yes, holy father," he answered. "Thanks to good brother Bartholomew,
I carve in wood and in ivory, and can do something also in silver and in
bronze. From brother Francis I have learned to paint on vellum, on
glass, and on metal, with a knowledge of those pigments and essences
which can preserve the color against damp or a biting air. Brother Luke
hath given me some skill in damask work, and in the enamelling of
shrines, tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs. For the rest, I know a little
of the making of covers, the cutting of precious stones, and the
fashioning of instruments."
"A goodly list, truly," cried the superior with a smile. "What clerk of
Cambrig or of Oxenford could say as much? But of thy reading--hast
not so much to show there, I fear?"
"No, father, it hath been slight enough. Yet, thanks to our good
chancellor, I am not wholly unlettered. I have read Ockham,
Bradwardine, and other of the schoolmen, together with the learned
Duns Scotus and the book of the holy Aquinas."
"But of the things of this world, what have you gathered from your
reading? From this high window you may catch a glimpse over the
wooden point and the smoke of Bucklershard of the mouth of the Exe,
and the shining sea. Now, I pray you Alleyne, if a man were to take a
ship and spread sail across yonder waters, where might he hope to
arrive?"
The youth pondered, and drew a plan amongst the rushes with the point
of his staff. "Holy father," said he, "he would come upon those parts of
France which are held by the King's Majesty. But if he trended to the
south he might reach Spain and the Barbary States. To his north would
be Flanders and the country of the Eastlanders and of the Muscovites."
"True. And how if, after reaching the King's possessions, he still
journeyed on to the eastward?"
"He would then come upon that part of France which is still in dispute,
and he might hope to reach the famous city of Avignon, where dwells

our blessed father, the prop of Christendom."
"And then?"
"Then he would pass through the land of the Almains and the great
Roman Empire, and so to the country of the Huns and of the Lithuanian
pagans, beyond which lies the great city of Constantine and the
kingdom of the unclean followers of Mahmoud."
"And beyond that, fair son?"
"Beyond that is Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the great river which
hath its source in the Garden of Eden."
"And then?"
"Nay, good father, I cannot tell. Methinks the end of the world is not
far from there."
"Then we can still find something to teach thee, Alleyne," said the
Abbot complaisantly. "Know that many strange nations lie betwixt
there and the end of the world. There is the country of the Amazons,
and the country of the dwarfs, and the country of the fair but evil
women who slay with beholding, like the basilisk. Beyond that again is
the kingdom of Prester John and of the great Cham. These things I
know for very sooth, for I had them from that pious Christian and
valiant knight, Sir John de Mandeville, who stopped twice at Beaulieu
on his way to and from Southampton, and discoursed to us concerning
what he had seen from the reader's desk in the refectory, until there was
many a good brother who got neither bit nor sup, so stricken were they
by his strange tales."
"I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what there may be
at the end of the world?"
"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, "into which it was
never intended that we should inquire. But you have a long road before
you. Whither will you first turn?"

"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly and violent
man, there is the more need that I should seek him out and see whether
I cannot turn him to better ways."
The Abbot shook his head. "The Socman of Minstead hath earned an
evil name over the country side," he said. "If you must go to him, see at
least that he doth not turn you from the narrow path upon which you
have learned to tread. But you are in God's keeping, and Godward
should you ever look in danger and in trouble. Above all, shun the
snares of women, for they are ever set for the foolish feet of the young.
Kneel down, my child, and take an old man's blessing."