About this story
You take the white banner at Cosford with little Sir Nigel Loring and young Alleyne Edricson, who turns from clerk to soldier, and you second him through the Garonne duel, fifteen inches of sword gone and the bout still won. Then Roncesvalles opens Spain, and Navarette nearly kills the Company. Thirty-six chapters carry a big man from the abbot's judgment seat to a Hampshire home-coming.
How it opens
Beaulieu's great bell called every working brother from field, forge, and fishpond.
Abbot BerghershBrother Jerome, this shame must be judged before the whole house.
The master of novices stood beside a parchment crowded with Brother Ambrose's charges.
Brother AmbroseHordle John shows no repentance, holy father.
Choose
Repentance should wait until we discover the sin.
Read them loudly, so no invention is wasted.
I submit to fair judgment, holy father.