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He, like his father, became Colonel of Militia, Chief Justice of common pleas, and Judge of Probate. James Otis, Jr. thus by inheritance, derived his legal bent and love for political life. His mother's name was Mary Allyne, or Alleyne, of Wethersfield, Conn., daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Plymouth. She was connected with the founders of Plymouth colony, who arrived in the Mayflower in 1620.
I was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu Abbey." "Pooh, pooh!" they cried both together. "What sort of an upbringing is that?" "Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum," quoth Alleyne. "Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters," said the melancholy man more hopefully. "He may be the better judge, since he hath no call to side with either of us.
"Liar!" cried the woman; and, stooping her head, she suddenly bit fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her. He whipped it back with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind Alleyne, cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who sees the falcon poising for the swoop above him.
Alleyne bent knee and doffed hat at the sight of the open door; but ere he had finished an ave his comrades were out of sight round the curve of the path, and he had to run to overtake them. "What!" he said, "not one word of prayer before God's own open house? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the day?"
They sang some rude chorus right tunefully as they walked, but their English was so coarse and rough that to the ears of a cloister-bred man it sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. One of them carried a young bittern which they had caught upon the moor, and they offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat.
"The river has been my enemy," said Tranter, "but it hath been a good friend to you, for it has saved your life this day." "That is as it may be," returned Alleyne. "But all is now well over," quoth Harcomb, "and no scath come of it, which is more than I had at one time hoped for.
"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are the only two friends that I have in the whole wide world outside of the cloisters; but, indeed, it may not be, for my duty is towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are dead, and he my elder.
If the end be now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived in times when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so many valiant gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck my sleeve, Alleyne?" "If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may perchance be those bombards and shot of which I have heard."
"Hast had small experience of war, if I may judge by your looks and bearing." "I would fain to France with my friends here," Alleyne answered; "but I am a man of peace a reader, exorcist, acolyte, and clerk." "That need not hinder," quoth Sir Nigel. "No, fair sir," cried the bowman joyously. "Why, I myself have served two terms with Arnold de Cervolles, he whom they called the archpriest.
"Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe and prosperous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. "Meanwhile it grieves me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar up the road I " "Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, "I still have some moneys remaining." "Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman."
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