THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
of considerable excitement that he had a poser to set before them.
He brought out a square piece of silk on which were embroidered
a number of fleurs-de-lys in rows, as shown in our illustration.
"Lordings," said the Dyer, " hearken anon unto my riddle.
Since I was awakened at dawn by the crowing of cocks—for which
din may our host never thrive
—I have sought an answer
thereto, but by St. Bernard
I have found it not. There
be sixty-and-four flowers-de-
luce, and the riddle is to
show how I may remove! six
of these so that there may
yet be an even number of
the flowers in every row and
every column."
The Dyer was abashed
when every one of the com-
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pany showed without any
difficulty whatever, and each in a different way, how this might
be done. But the good Clerk of Oxenford was seen to whisper
something to the Dyer, who added, " Hold, my masters ! What
I have said is not all. Ye must find in how many different ways it
may be done !" All agreed that this was quite another matter.
And only a few of the company got the right answer.
28.—
The Great Dispute between the Friar and the Sompnour.
Chaucer records the painful fact that the harmony of the
pilgrimage was broken on occasions by the quarrels between the
Friar and the Sompnour. At one stage the latter threatened that
ere they reached Sittingbourne he would make the Friar's " heart for
to mourn/' but the worthy Host intervened and patched up a
temporary peace. Unfortunately trouble broke out again over a
very curious dispute in this way.
At one point of the journey the road lay along two sides of a
26
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