Waverley Novels Author:Walter Scott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: beside him. This second Eumanis strode hastily down the forest glade, driving before him, with the assistance of Fangs, the whole herd of his inharmonious charge... more ». CHAPTER II. A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie, An outrider that loved venerie ; A manly man, to be an Abbot able, Full many a daintie horse had he in stable : And whan he rode, men might his bridle hear Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear, And eke as loud, as doth the chapel! bell, There as this lord was keeper of the cell. Ctutucer. Notwithstanding the occasional exhortation and chiding of his companion, the noise of the horsemen's feet continuing to approach, Wamba could not be prevented from lingering occasionally on the road upon every pretence which occurred ; now catching from the hazel a cluster of half-ripe nuts, and now turning his head to leer after a cottage maiden who crossed their path. The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them on the road. Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two who rode foremost seemed to be persons of considerable importance, and the others their attendants. It was not difficult to ascertain the condition and character of one of these personages. He was obviously an ecclesiastic of high rank ; his dress was that of a cistercian Monk, but composed of materials much finer than those which the rule of that order admitted. His mantle and hood were of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample and not ungraceful folds around a handsome though somewhat corpulent person. His countenance bore as little the marks of self-denial, as his habit indicated contempt of worldly splendour. His features might have been calledgood, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious voluptuary. In other respec...« less