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"Now, by the Rood!" says Beltane, sitting up and staring, "whence had you this, Giles?"

"My lord, 'twas found by the ether with a mule--a sorry beast! a capon partly devoured, a pasty-- well spiced! and a wine-skin--empty, alas! But for who it is, and whence it cometh--"

"Sweet, courteous lord,--resplendent, youthful sir, I come from north and south, froreen and market-square, but lately from the holy shrine of the blessed Saint Amphibalus As to who I am and what--the universal want am I, for I do stand for health, fleshly and spiritual I can cure your diseases of the soul, mind and body In very sooth the Pardoner of Pardoners aences but now hot from the holy fist of His Holiness of Rome: moreover I have a rare charether with divers salves, electuaries, medicaments and nostrus and ballades, grave and gay Are ye melancholic? Then I have a ditty merry and mirthful Would ye weep? Here's a lauishment infinite sad to ease you of your tears Are ye a sinner vile and daences whereby a man may enjoy all the cardinal sins yet shall his soul be accounted innocent as a babe unborn and his flesh go without penance Here behold ence! The which, to hi sins damned and deadly--to wit: Lechery, perjury, adultery, wizardry Murders, rapes, thievings and slanders Then follow the lesser sins, as--"

"Hold!" cried Beltane, "surely here be sins enough for any ht sinful world and breedeth new sins every day, since , alas! yet so natural: for, since men are human, and hu sinners, are they therefore inevitably dahed Beltane

"Forsooth, alas indeed, messire, and likeoe!" nodded the Pardoner, "for thou, my lord, thou art but human, after all"

"Indeed at tiravely

"And therefore," quoth the Pardoner, "and therefore, entle lord, art thou hed

"Da with the rest of humanity!" nodded Beltane

"All men be more prone to sin when youth doth riot in their veins," quoth the Pardoner, "and alas, thou art very young, messire, so do I tremble for thee"