The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 14

  They Ride Away From Whitwall

  But when they were well on the way, and riding a good pace by the clearof the moon, Richard spake to Ralph, and said: "Wither ride we now?"said Ralph: "Wither, save to Upmeads?" "Yea, yea," said Richard, "butby what road? shall we ride down to the ford of the Swelling Flood, andride the beaten way, or take to the downland and the forest, and soagain by the forest and downland and the forest once more, till we cometo the Burg of the Four Friths?"

  "Which way is the shorter?" said Ralph. "Forsooth," said Richard, "bythe wildwood ye may ride shorter, if ye know it as I do." Quoth theSage: "Yea, or as I do. Hear a wonder! that two men of Swevenham knowthe wilds more than twenty miles from their own thorp."

  Said Ralph: "Well, wend we the shorter road; why make more words overit? Or what lion lieth on the path? Is it that we may find it hard togive the go-by to the Burg of the Four Friths?"

  Said Richard: "Though the Burg be not very far from Whitwall, we hearbut little tidings thence; our chapmen but seldom go there, and nonecometh to us thence save such of our men as have strayed thither. Yet,as I said e'en now in the hostel, there is an air of tidings abroad,and one rumour sayeth, and none denieth it, that the old fierceness andstout headstrong mood of the Burg is broken down, and that men dwellthere in peace and quiet."

  Said the Sage: "In any case we have amongst us lore enough to hoodwinkthem if they be foes; so that we shall pass easily. Naught of thisneed we fear."

  But Richard put his mouth close to Ralph's ear, and spake to himsoftly: "Shall we indeed go by that shorter road, whatever in days goneby may have befallen in places thereon, to which we must go a-nightomorrow?" Ralph answered softly in turn: "Yea, forsooth: for I werefain to try my heart, how strong it may be."

  So they rode on, and turned off from the road that led down to the fordof the Swelling Flood, anigh which Ralph had fallen in with Blaise andRichard on the day after the woeful slaying, which had made an end ofhis joy for that time. But when they were amidst of the bushes andriding a deep ghyll of the waste, Richard said: "It is well that weare here: for now if Blaise send riders to bring us back courteously,they shall not follow us at once, but shall ride straight down to theford, and even cross it in search of us." "Yea," said Ralph, "it iswell in all wise."

  So then they rode thence awhile till the moon grew low, and great, andred, and sank down away from them; and by then were they come to ashepherd's cot, empty of men, with naught therein save an old dog, andsome victual, as bread and white cheese, and a well for drinking. Sothere they abode and rested that night.