The Black Rose

Tristram Griffin:
I was thinking about going with you.

Walter of Gurnie:
To Cathay?

Tristram Griffin:
Well, where's that?

Walter of Gurnie:
Well, it's a long way from your forest.

Tristram Griffin:
Well, maybe Sarah would like it there.

Walter of Gurnie:
Now, don't talk too lightly about it, Tris,. If we should go to such a place, the chances are all you'll get out of it is that, in the end, you'll be hung by a Mongol instead of a Norman.

Tristram Griffin:
Well, if it comes to that, I'd sooner give the pleasure to somebody I don't know than a Norman I hate.

Walter of Gurnie:
A far land it is then. I guess this is the beginning.

King Edward:
Tell me, when you refuse me your loyalty because I am a Norman, have you not considered that I have no choice in the same matter - that I must be king for Norman and Saxon alike whether I like it or not. Do you, Saxon, not owe something besides hatred to the same cause?

Walter of Gurnie:
Oh, how do we find your tent?

Bayan:
Scholar, if any man in my army can't tell you where my tent is, our poetic young bowman can use him as a target.

Bayan:
That's the only way you can ever sleep soundly, you know, when your enemy's sleep is eternal.

Lu Chung:
Never talk important matters where you cannot see who listens.

Walter of Gurnie:
[after the battle] I saw you at the beginning. You and your bowman against those fire tubes.

Tristram Griffin:
They sounded like the anger of God! I think perhaps they were! They're killing every man, woman, and child in the district like harvesters through a field of grain! They pull their heads forward by the hair for the ax. Not one left alive! Like harvesters cutting wheat!

Bayan:
Well, it's worth something to be willing to die for something.

Bayan:
You can refuse to go if you want to. The risk is great enough.

Walter of Gurnie:
No. I'll go, my Lord.

Bayan:
It's settled then. [as Walter turns to go] Scholar? Maybe I'm a little sorry I thought of this journey for you, but be sure of this: if they kill you, I'll kill 10 of them for every hair on your head... I have a strange feeling I may not see you again... If that's true, I'll miss you, Scholar... I don't miss many men.

Walter of Gurnie:
Well, for your sake, I'll try not to get killed.

Bayan:
At least I'm good enough to know, no war was ever won that was fought in the same way as the war before it.