The White Company Chapter 4 - How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men

**Arthur Conan Doyle** (0:24)
CHAPTER IV.
How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men.
The road along which he traveled was scarce as populous as most other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie between the larger towns. Yet from time to time, Alleyne met other wayfarers, and more than once was overtaken by strings of pack mules and horsemen journeying in the same direction as himself.
Once, a begging friar came limping along in a brown habit, imploring in a most dollarse voice to give him a single groat to buy bread, wherewith to save himself from impending death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and besides, there was a great half-nored mutton bone sticking out of his pouch to prove him a liar. Swiftly as he went, however, he could not escape the curse of the four blessed evangelists which the mendicant howled behind him. So dreadful were his execrations that the frightened lad thrust his fingers into his ear-holes, and ran until the fellow was but a brown smerch upon the yellow road.
Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a chapman and his wife, who sat upon a fallen tree.
He had put his pack down as a table, and the two of them were devouring a great pasty, and washing it down with some drink from a stone jar. The chapman broke a rough jest as he passed, and the woman called shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them, on which the man, turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to belabor her with his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make more mischief, and his heart was heavy as lead within him. Look where he would, he seemed to see nothing but injustice and violence, and the hardness of man to man.
But even as he brooded sadly over it, and pined for the sweet piece of the abbey, he came on an open space dotted with holly bushes, where was the strangest sight he had yet chanced upon. Near to the pathway lay a long clump of greenery, and from behind this there stuck, straight up into the air, four human legs clad in party-coloured hosen, yellow and black. Strangest of all was when a brisk tune suddenly struck up, the four legs began to kick and twitter in time to the music. Walking on tiptoe round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding a bit on their heads while they played, the one on a vial and the other on a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated in a choir. Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this unnatural sight and could scarce hold his ground when a steady face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him, came bouncing in his direction.
A spear's length from him, they each threw a somersault into the air and came down upon their feet with smirking faces and their hands over their hearts. Aguardo, Aguardo, my knight, of the staring eyes, cried one. A gift, my prince, shouted the other, any trifle will serve, a purse of gold, or even a jeweled goblet. Alan thought of what he had read of demonic possession, the jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to repeat over the exorcism proper to such attacks, but the two burst out a laughing at his scared face, and turning on to their heads once more, clapped their heels in derision. Hast never seen tumblers before? asked the elder. A black-browed swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig. Why shrink from us, then, as though we were the spawn of the evil one? Why shrink, my honey-bird? Why so I feared my sweet cinnamon? exclaimed the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth with a dancing, roguish eye. Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me, the clerk answered. When I saw your four legs above the bush, I could scarce credit my own eyes. Why is it that you do this thing? A dry question to answer, cried the younger, coming back on to his feet. A most husky question, my fair bird. But how? A flask, a flask, by all that is wonderful! He shot out his hand as he spoke, and plucking Ellen's bottle out of his script, he deftly knocked the neck off and poured the half of it down his throat. The rest he handed to his comrade, who drank the wine and then, to the clerk's increasing amazement, made a show of swallowing the bottle, with such skill that Ellen seemed to see it vanish down his throat. A moment later, however, he flung it over his head and caught it bottom downwards upon the calf of his left leg. We thank you for the wine, kind sir, said he, and for the ready courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, we may tell you that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having performed with much applause at Winchester Fair, are now on our way to the great Mickelmas Market at Ringwood. As our art is a very fine and delicate one, however, we cannot let a day go by without exercising ourselves in it, to which end we choose some quiet and sheltered spot where we may break our journey. Here you find us, and we cannot wonder that you, who are new to tumbling, should be astounded, since many great barons, earls, marshals and knights, who have wandered as far as the Holy Land, are of one mind in saying that they have never seen a more noble or gracious performance. If you'll be pleased to sit upon that stump, we will now continue our exercise.