CHAPTER 17
Richard Bringeth Tidings of Departing
Fell the talk between them at that time, and three days wore, and onthe morning of the fourth day came Richard to Ralph, and said to him:"Foster-son, I am sorry for the word I must say, but Clement Chapmancame within the gates this morning early, and the company with which heis riding are alboun for the road, and will depart at noon to-day, sothat there are but four hours wherein we twain may be together; andthereafter whatso may betide thee, it may well be, that I shall see thyface no more; so what thou wilt tell me must be told straightway. Andnow I will say this to thee, that of all things I were fain to ridewith thee, but I may not, because it is Blaise whom I am bound to servein all ways. And I deem, moreover, that troublous times may be at handhere in Whitwall. For there is an Earl hight Walter the Black, a fairyoung man outwardly, but false at heart and a tyrant, and he had someoccasion against the good town, and it was looked for that he shouldsend his herald here to defy the Port more than a half moon ago; butabout that time he was hurt in a fray as we hear, and may not back ahorse in battle yet. Albeit, fristed is not forgotten, as saith thesaw; and when he is whole again, we may look for him at our gates; andwhereas Blaise knows me for a deft man-at-arms or something more, it isnot to be looked for that he will give me to thee for this quest. Nay,of thee also it will be looked for that thou shouldest do knightlyservice to the Port, and even so Blaise means it to be; therefore haveI lied to him on thy behalf, and bidden Clement also to lie (whichforsooth he may do better than I, since he wotteth not wholly whitherthou art minded), and I have said thou wouldst go with Clement nofurther than Cheaping Knowe, which lieth close to the further side ofthese mountains, and will be back again in somewhat more than ahalf-moon's wearing. So now thou art warned hereof."
Ralph was moved by these words of Richard, and he spake: "Forsooth, oldfriend, I am sorry to depart from thee; yet though I shall presently beall alone amongst aliens, yet now is manhood rising again in me. Sofor that cause at least shall I be glad to be on the way; and as atoken that I am more whole than I was, I will now tell thee the tale ofmy grief, if thou wilt hearken to it, which the other day I might nottell thee."
"I will hearken it gladly," said Richard. And therewith they sat downin a window, for they were within doors in the hostel, and Ralph toldall that had befallen him as plainly and shortly as he might; and whenhe had done, Richard said:
"Thou has had much adventure in a short space, lord, and if thoumightest now refrain thy longing for that which is gone, and set it onthat which is to come, thou mayest yet harden into a famous knight anda happy man." Said Ralph: "Yea? now tell me all thy thought."
Said Richard: "My thought is that this lady who was slain, was scarcewholly of the race of Adam; but that at the least there was someblending in her of the blood of the fays. Or how deemest thou?"
"I wot not," said Ralph sadly; "to me she seemed but a woman, thoughshe were fairer and wiser than other women." Said Richard: "Well,furthermore, if I heard thee aright, there is another woman in the talewho is also fairer and wiser than other women?"
"I would she were my sister!" said Ralph. "Yea," quoth Richard, "anddost thou bear in mind what she was like? I mean the fashion of herbody." "Yea, verily," said Ralph.
Again said Richard: "Doth it seem to thee as if the Lady of the DryTree had some inkling that thou shouldst happen upon this other woman:whereas she showed her of the road to the Well at the World's End, andgave her that pair of beads, and meant that thou also shouldest gothither? And thou sayest that she praised her,--her beauty and wisdom.In what wise did she praise her? how came the words forth from her?was it sweetly?"
"Like honey and roses for sweetness," said Ralph. "Yea," said Richard,"and she might have praised her in such wise that the words had cameforth like gall and vinegar. Now I will tell thee of my thought, sincewe be at point of sundering, though thou take it amiss and be wrothwith me: to wit, that thou wouldst have lost the love of this lady astime wore, even had she not been slain: and she being, if no fay, yetwiser than other women, and foreseeing, knew that so it would be."Ralph brake in: "Nay, nay, it is not so, it is not so!" "Hearken,youngling!" quoth Richard; "I deem that it was thus. Her love for theewas so kind that she would have thee happy after the sundering:therefore she was minded that thou shouldest find the damsel, who as Ideem loveth thee, and that thou shouldest love her truly."
"O nay, nay!" said Ralph, "all this guess of thine is naught, sayingthat she was kind indeed. Even as heaven is kind to them who have diedmartyrs, and enter into its bliss after many torments."
And therewith he fell a-weeping at the very thought of her greatkindness: for indeed to this young man she had seemed great, andexalted far above him.
Richard looked at him a while; and then said: "Now, I pray thee be notwroth with me for the word I have spoken. But something more shall Isay, which shall like thee better. To wit, when I came back fromSwevenham on Wednesday I deemed it most like that the Well at theWorld's End was a tale, a coloured cloud only; or that at most if itwere indeed on the earth, that thou shouldest never find it. But nowis my mind changed by the hearing of thy tale, and I deem both that theWell verily is, and that thou thyself shalt find it; and that the wiseLady knew this, and set the greater store by thy youth and goodliness,as a richer and more glorious gift than it had been, were it asfleeting as such things mostly be. Now of this matter will I say nomore; but I think that the words that I have said, and which now seemso vain to thee, shall come into thy mind on some later day, and availthee somewhat; and that is why I have spoken them. But this again isanother word, that I have got a right good horse for thee, and othergear, such as thou mayest need for the road, and that Clement'sfellowship will meet in Petergate hard by the church, and I will be thysquire till thou comest thither, and ridest thence out a-gates. Now Isuppose that thou will want to bid Blaise farewell: yet thou must lookto it that he will not deem thy farewell of great moment, since heswimmeth in florins and goodly wares; and moreover deemeth that thouwilt soon be back here."
"Nevertheless," said Ralph, "I must needs cast my arms about my ownmother's son before I depart: so go we now, as all this talk hath wornaway more than an hour of those four that were left me."