And this our friend and brother
from over the water of Thames, he hath will to talk with me and I with
him; so now will I take him by the hand: and so God keep you,
fellows!"
I rose to meet him as he came round the head of the table, and took
his hand. Will Green turned round to me and said:
"Thou wilt come back again timely, old lad; for betimes on the morrow
must we rise if we shall dine at Rochester."
I stammered as I yea-said him; for John Ball was looking strangely at
me with a half-smile, and my heart beat anxiously and fearfully: but
we went quietly to the door and so out into the bright moonlight.
I lingered a little when we had passed the threshold, and looked back
at the yellow-lighted window and the shapes of the men that I saw
therein with a grief and longing that I could not give myself a reason
for, since I was to come back so soon. John Ball did not press me to
move forward, but held up his hand as if to bid me hearken. The folk
and guests there had already shaken themselves down since our
departure, and were gotten to be reasonably merry it seemed; for one
of the guests, he who had spoken of France before, had fallen to
singing a ballad of the war to a wild and melancholy tune.
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