William Morris

“ If I come not back at all, when it is known for sure here that I am dead, then I rede thee make as little delay as thou mayest, but get thee gone at once, thou and thy nurse, from the pleasant house of Brookside, and go straight to the house of the Grey Sisters, which thou hast seen from without many a time, that lieth betwixt wood and water a seven miles down the river, and tell them that I have sent you and bid them to cherish you ”

“ Lady, said he, by my deeming, if we crush not this valiant man utterly he will scatter us; he is not such a man, if he have any force left, as may be held aloof, as a man will hold a fierce sheep-dog with a staff till the shepherd come. ”

“ When the Maiden heard this she was troubled, and asked him what he deemed of the chances of the war; and he said: Lady, this is what we were talking of with the Lord of Warding Knowe that other day; and I must tell thee, though I shall go to the hosting merrily and expend me there to the utmost, yet I deem that they be the luckiest who may keep them out of this strife, as I may not. Yet, said she, be they not mighty men, these Barons? and all men say that their League is well knit together; so that at the worst, if they overwhelm not the Knight of Longshaw, they may hold them well against him. ”