Then in a while he said, "Now ye have seen the images of those who
were our friends, come and see the images of those who were once our
foes."
So he led the way through the side screen into the chancel aisle, and
there on the pavement lay the bodies of the foemen, their weapons
taken from them and they stripped of their armour, but not otherwise
of their clothes, and their faces mostly, but not all, covered. At
the east end of the aisle was another altar, covered with a rich cloth
beautifully figured, and on the wall over it was a deal of tabernacle
work, in the midmost niche of it an image painted and gilt of a gay
knight on horseback, cutting his own cloak in two with his sword to
give a cantle of it to a half-naked beggar. "Knowest thou any of these
men?" said I.
He said, "Some I should know, could I see their faces; but let them
be."
"Were they evil men?" said I.
"Yea," he said, "some two or three. But I will not tell thee of them;
let St. Martin, whose house this is, tell their story if he will. As
for the rest they were hapless fools, or else men who must earn their
bread somehow, and were driven to this bad way of earning it; God rest
their souls! I will be no tale-bearer, not even to God.
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