midday
He was older than most of them , for they ranged from fourteen to eighteen years , and were chiefly beardless boys who had never seen fight , whose fathers had fought Geoffrey Plantagenet until they had recognized that he was the master , as the great Duke William had been in his day , and then , being beaten , had submitted whole-heartedly and all at once , as brave men do , and had forthwith sent their sons to learn arms and manners at Geoffrey 's court . So none of these youths had slain a man with his own hand , as Gilbert had at Faringdon , nor had any of them faced an enemy with plain steel in a quarrel , as Gilbert had faced Sir Arnold de Curboil . Though Gilbert told little of his story and less of his deeds , they saw that he was older than they , they felt that he had seen more than they had , and they guessed that his hand was harder and heavier than theirs . As the day wore , and they rode , and halted , and dined together in the vast outer hall of a monastery which they reached soon after midday , the young men who sat beside Gilbert noticed that he could repeat the Latin words of the long grace as well as any monk , and one laughed and asked where he had got so much scholarship . `` I lay two months in an abbey , '' answered Gilbert , `` healing of a wound , and the nursing brother taught me the monks ' ways . '' `` And how came you by such a wound ? '' asked the young squire .