Chapter 20

around him_.

_Stephen_. Not a footprint! not a trace that a blood-hound would nose at! But Stephen shall be acknowledged good dog and true. If I had him within stick-length--mind thy head, brother Julian! Thou hast not hair enough to protect it, and thy tonsure shall not. Neither shalt thou tarry at Jericho.--It is a poor man that leaves no trail; and if thou wert poor, I would not follow thee.

[_Sings_.]

Oh, many a hound is stretching out His two legs or his four, And the saddled horses stand about The court and the castle door, Till out come the baron, jolly and stout, To hunt the bristly boar!

The emperor, he doth keep a pack In his antechambers standing, And up and down the stairs, good lack! And eke upon the landing: A straining leash, and a quivering back, And nostrils and chest expanding!

The devil a hunter long hath been, Though Doctor Luther said it: Of his canon-pack he was the dean, And merrily he led it: The old one kept them swift and lean On faith--that's devil's credit!

Each man is a hunter to his trade, And they follow one another; But such a hunter never was made As the monk that hunted his brother! And the runaway pig, ere its game be played, Shall be eaten by its mother!

Better hunt a flea in a woolly blanket, than a leg-bail monk in this wilderness of mountains, forests, and precipices! But the flea _may_ be caught, and so _shall_ the monk. I have said it. He is well spotted, with his silver crown and his uncropped ears. The rascally heretic! But his vows shall keep him, though he won't keep his vows. The whining, blubbering idiot! Gave his plaything, and wants it back!--I wonder whereabouts I am.