The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 28

  Dame Katherine Tells of the Pair of Beads, and Whence She Had Them

  Katherine cast friendly looks on them and said: "Gossip, and thou,Clement, I will make a clean breast of it once for all. In the dayswhen I was first wedded to Master Clement yonder, he found his bed coldwithout me, for he was a hot lover; therefore would he often have mewith him on his journeys, how hard soever or perilous the way might be.Yea, Clement, thou lookest the sooth, though thou sayest it not, I wasnought loth thereto, partly because I would not grieve thee, my man;but partly, and belike mostly, because I was wishful to see the ways ofthe world even at the risk of being thrust out of the world. So itbefell us on a time to make a journey together, a journey exceedinglong, in the company of certain chapmen, whereof some, and not a few,died on the way. But we lived, and came into the eastern parts of theearth to a city right ancient, and fulfilled of marvels, which hightSarras the Holy. There saw we wonders whereof were it overlong to tellof here; but one while I will tell thee, my lord. But this I mustneeds say, that I heard tell of a woman dwelling there, who was not oldby seeming, but had in her the wisdom of ten lives, and the longing gathold of me to see her and learn wisdom of her. So I entreated many whowere called wise, some with prayers, and some with gifts also, to helpme to speech of her; but I gat nothing either by praying or giving;they that would have helped me could not, and they that could wouldnot. So, what between one thing and another, the longing to see theWise Woman grew as it were into a madness in me. Amidst of which wefell in with a merchant exceeding wise in ancient lore, who looked atme (though Clement knew it not) with eyes of love. Of this man I askedconcerning the Wise Woman, and he seeing my desire, strove to use itmerchant-like, and would deal with me and have in payment for hislearning a gift which I had nought to do to give. Howbeit madness andmy desire for speech with the Wise Woman got the better of me, and Ipromised to give no less than he would, trusting to beguile him after Ihad got my desire, and be quit of him. So he led me to the woman andwent his ways. She dwelt all by herself in a nook of an ancient ruinedpalace, erst the house of the ancientest of all the kings of Sarras.When I came to her, I saw nought dreadful or ugsome about her: she wascheerful of countenance and courteous of demeanour, and greeted mekindly as one neighbour in the street of Wulstead might do to another.I saw her, that she was by seeming a woman of some forty winters, trimand well-fashioned of body, nowise big, but slender, of dark red hairand brown eyes somewhat small.

  "Now, she said to me, 'I have looked for thee a while; now thou artcome, thou shalt tell me what thou needest, and thy needs will Ifulfil. Yet needs must thou do a thing for me in return, and maybethou wilt deem it a great thing. Yet whereas thou has struck a bargainbefore thou camest hither, if I undo that for thee, the bargain with memay be nought so burdensome. How sayest thou?'

  "Well, I saw now that I was in the trap, for ill had it been in thosedays had Clement come to know that I had done amiss; for he was ajealous lover, and a violent man."

  Clement smiled hereat, but said nought, and Katherine went on: "Trap orno trap, if I were eager before, I was over-eager now; so when she bademe swear to do her will, I swore it without tarrying.

  "Then she said: 'Sit down before me, and I will teach thee wisdom.'What did she teach me? say ye. Well, if I told you belike ye would benone the wiser; but so much she told me, that my heart swelled with joyof the wisdom which I garnered. Say thou, Clement, if I have been theworser woman to thee, or thy friends, or mine."

  "Nay, goodwife," said Clement, "I have nought against thee."

  Katherine laughed and went on:

  "At last the Wise Woman said, 'Now that thou hast of me all that mayavail thee, comes the other part of our bargain, wherein I shall takeand thou shalt give.'

  "Quoth I, 'That is but fair, and thou shalt find me true to thee.' Shesaid, 'If thou be not, I shall know it, and shall amend it in such wisethat it shall cost thee much.'

  "Then she looked on me long and keenly, and said afterward: 'Forsooth Ishould forbear laying this charge upon thee if I did not deem that thouwouldst be no less than true. But now I will try it, whereas I deemthat the days of my life henceforward shall not be many; and many dayswould it take me to find a woman as little foolish as thee and aslittle false, and thereto as fairly fashioned.'

  "Therewith she put her hand to her neck, and took thence the self-samepair of beads which I gave to thee, dear gossip, and which (praise beto All Hallows!) thou hast borne ever since; and she said: 'Nowhearken! Thou shalt take this pair of beads, and do with them as I bidthee. Swear again thereto.' So I swore by All Angels; and she saidagain: 'This pair of beads shall one day lead a man unto the Well atthe World's End, but no woman; forsooth, if a woman have them of awoman, or the like of them, (for there be others,) they may serve herfor a token; but will be no talisman or leading-stone to her; and thisI tell thee lest thou seek to the Well on the strength of them. For Ibid thee give them to a man that thou lovest--that thou lovest well,when he is in most need; only he shall not be of thine own blood. Thisis all that I lay upon thee; and if thou do it, thou shalt thrive, andif thou do it not, thou shalt come to harm. And I will tell thee nowthat this meeting betwixt us is not by chance-hap, but of my bringingabout; for I have laboured to draw thee to me, knowing that thou aloneof women would avail me herein. Now shalt thou go home to thinehostel, and take this for a token of my sooth-saying. The wise merchantwho led thee unto me is abiding thine homecoming that he may have ofthee that which thou promisedst to him. If then thou find him at thinehostel, and he take thee by the hand and lead thee to bed, whereasClement is away till to-morrow even, then shalt thou call me a vainword-spinner and a liar; but if when thou comest home there, the folkthere say to thee merchant Valerius is ridden away hastily, beingcalled afar on a message of life and death, then shalt thou trow in meas a wise woman. Herewith depart, and I bid thee farewell.'

  "So I went my ways to my hostel trembling, and at the door I met thechamberlain, who said to me, 'Lady, the merchant Valerius hath beenhere seeking thee, and he said that he would abide thy coming; butamidst of his abiding cometh a man who would speak to him privily;whereof it came that he called for his horse and bade me tell thee,Lady, that he was summoned on a matter of life and death, and wouldreturn to kiss thine hands in five days' space.'

  "So I wotted that the woman had spoken sooth, and was wise andforeseeing, and something of a dread of her came upon me. But the nexteven back cometh Clement, and the day after we rode away from Sarrasthe Holy, and Valerius I saw never again. And as to the beads, thereis nought to tell of them till they came into thine hands; andsomething tells me that it was the will of the Wise Woman that to noother hands they should come."

  Here Katherine made an end, and both the men sat pondering her tale alittle. As for Ralph, he deemed it certain that the Wise Woman ofSarras would be none other than she who had taught lore to the Lady ofAbundance; but why she should have meant the beads for him he wottednot. Again he wondered how it was that the Lady of Abundance shouldhave given the beads to Ursula, and whether she knew that they had nomight to lead her to the Well at the World's End. And yet further hewondered how it was that Ursula, unholpen by the talisman, should havedone so much to bring him to the Well; yea, and how she was the firstto see it while he slept. But his heart told him that whereas he wasseeking the Well with her, she must needs come thither with him, unlessthey were both cast away; withal Katherine looked at him and said:"Yea, dear lord, I wot what thou art thinking of; but couldest thouhave left her, when thou hadst once found her again, Well or no Well?""Sooth is that," said Ralph, "yet for all that she hath done withouthelp of talisman or witchcraft is she the more worshipful and thedearer."

  Then speech came into Clement's mouth, and he said: "Wife, it is as Isaid before, when thy gossip had just departed from us. It was meetenough that thou shouldst have loved him better than me; but now it iseven less to be undone than ever, when he has come back bringing withhim a woman so v
aliant and lovely as is my Lady Ursula. So thou muste'en take the life that fate hath sent thee." Katherine laughed throughher tears, and said: "Withal, goodman, I have been no bad wife tothee. And moreover, look thou, gossip dear: when I was wandering aboutwith Clement amongst many perils, when our need seemed sorest, thenwould I think to give the beads to Clement; but so soon as I began tospeak to him of the Well at the World's End he would belittle the taleof it, and would bid me look to it if it were not so, that where theworld endeth the clouds begin."

  As she spoke, Ralph lifted up his hand and pointed to the window, andsaid: "Friends, as we were speaking of all these marvels we wereforgetting the need of Upmeads and the day of battle; and lo now! howthe dawn is widening and the candles fading."

  Scarce were the words out of his mouth, when on the quietness of thebeginning of day brake out the sound of four trumpets, which weresounding in the four quarters of the town, and blowing men to thegathering. Then rose up both Ralph and Clement and took their weapons,and they kissed Katherine and went soberly out-a-doors into themarket-place, where already weaponed men were streaming in to themuster.