"
"The guard protect mine host then." Rodriguez said with as much
surprise in his tones as he ever permitted himself.
"Master," Morano said, "it could not be otherwise. For so many
gallants have entered the door of this inn and supped in this
chamber and never been seen again, and so many suspicious things
have been found here, such as blood, that it became necessary for
him to pay the guard well, and so they protect him." And Morano
hastily slung over his shoulder by leather straps an iron pot and
a frying-pan and took his broad felt hat from a peg on the wall.
Rodriguez' eyes looked so curiously at the great cooking utensils
dangling there from the straps that Morano perceived his young
master did not fully understand these preparations: he therefore
instructed him thus: "Master, there be two things necessary in the
wars, strategy and cooking. Now the first of these comes in use
when the captains speak of their achievements and the historians
write of the wars. Strategy is a learned thing, master, and the
wars may not be told of without it, but while the war rageth and
men be camped upon the foughten field then is the time for
cooking; for many a man that fights the wars, if he hath not his
food, were well content to let the enemy live, but feed him and at
once he becometh proud at heart and cannot a-bear the sight of the
enemy walking among his tents but must needs slay him outright.
Aye, master, the cooking for the wars; and when the wars are over
you who are learned shall study strategy.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48