THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
began to bristle like a hog's back and the scars of him to turn a fiery purple, Master Hierome was generous and forgave him his debt. This is what it is to deal with an upright honest lawyer; but some of them rob and pill their clients without mercy. And from that time Sir Roger led a very happy and respectable life at Penhow, amusing himself with keeping the people round about in order, looking after his privileges, and building a bit to the castle here and there, and maintaining open house and a hospitable table for all comers, but especially folk from over sea, for he liked to talk over old times and to hear how things were going on in the castles he had burnt, the towns he had stormed, and the families whose numbers he had reduced. To Gilbert Tapp he had given the captainship over the garrison, for it was necessary to be on the safe side and not to tempt one's neighbours to ransack one's money chest; a very sinful habit but a common one in those days and accompanied by such annotations as throat-cutting and general destruction and deviltry, so that the gloss was worse than the text. On this account a strong body of men-at-arms was maintained at Penhow, and the old battered and scored esquire took good care that they were well up to the mark and perfect in their exercises. In this sort Sir Roger lived till he was getting on in life and had seen the sun set on his grand climacteric; but as he was riding one day through the village it chanced that he met an old woman trotting along as fast as her legs would carry her. "Whither go you so fast, mother?"
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