CHAPTER 25
The Fellowship Comes to Whiteness
Two days thereafter the chapmen having done with their matters inCheaping Knowe, whereas they must needs keep some of their wares forother places, and especially for Goldburg, they dight them to be goneand rode out a-gates of a mid-morning with banners displayed.
It was some fifty miles thence to Whiteness, which lay close underneaththe mountains, and was, as it were, the door of the passes whereby menrode to Goldburg. The land which they passed through was fair, both oftillage and pasture, with much cattle therein. Everywhere they saw menand women working afield, but no houses of worthy yeomen or vavassors,or cots of good husbandmen. Here and there was a castle orstrong-house, and here and there long rows of ugly hovels, or whileshouses, big tall and long, but exceeding foul and ill-favoured, such asRalph had not yet seen the like of. And when he asked of Clementconcerning all this, he said: "It is as I have told thee, that here beno freemen who work afield, nay, nor villeins either. All those whomye have seen working have been bought and sold like to those whom wesaw standing on the Stone in the market of Cheaping Knowe, or else wereborn of such cattle, and each one of them can be bought and sold again,and they work not save under the whip. And as for those hovels and thelong and foul houses, they are the stables wherein this kind of cattleis harboured."
Then Ralph's heart sank, and he said: "Master Clement, I prithee tellme; were it possible that the damsel whom I seek may be come to such apass as one of these?" "Nay," quoth Clement, "that is little like tobe; such goodly wares are kept for the adornment of great men's houses.True it is that whiles the house-thralls be sent into the fields fortheir punishment; yet not such as she, unless the master be whollywearied of them, or if their wrath outrun their wits; for it is more tothe master's profit to chastise them at home; so keep a good heart Ibid thee, and maybe we shall have tidings at Whiteness."
So Ralph refrained his anxious heart, though forsooth his thought wasmuch upon the damsel and of how she was faring.
It was not till the third day at sunset that they came to Whiteness;for on the last day of their riding they came amongst the confusedhills that lay before the great mountains, which were now often hiddenfrom their sight; but whenever they appeared through the openings ofthe near hills, they seemed very great and terrible; dark and bare andstony; and Clement said that they were little better than they lookedfrom afar. As to Whiteness, they saw it a long way off, as it lay on along ridge at the end of a valley: and so long was the ridge, thatbehind it was nothing green; naught but the huge and bare mountains.The westering sun fell upon its walls and its houses, so that it lookedwhite indeed against those great cliffs and crags; though, saidClement, that these were yet a good way off. Now when, after a longride from the hither end of the valley, they drew nigh to the town,Ralph saw that the walls and towers were not very high or strong, forso steep was the hill whereon the town stood, that it needed not. Herealso was no great castle within the town as at Cheaping Knowe, and thetown itself nothing so big, but long and straggling along the top ofthe ridge. Cheaping Knowe was all builded of stone; but the houseshere were of timber for the most part, done over with pargeting andwhitened well. Yet was the town more cheerful of aspect than CheapingKnowe, and the folk who came thronging about the chapmen at the gatesnot so woe-begone, and goodly enough.
Of the lord of Whiteness, Clement told that he paid tribute to him ofCheaping Knowe, rather for love of peace than for fear of him; for hewas no ill lord, and free men lived well under him.
So the chapmen lodged in the market-place; and in two days time Ralphgot speech of the Deacon of the Chapmen of the Town; who told him twomatters; first that the lord of Utterbol had not been in Whitenessthese six months; and next that the wild man had verily brought thedamsel into the market; but he had turned away thence suddenly withher, without bringing her to the stone, and that it was most like thathe would have the lord of Utterbol buy her; who, since he would bedeeming that he might easily bend her to his will, would give him thebetter penny for her. "At the last," quoth the Deacon, "the wild manled her away toward the mountain pass that goeth to Goldburg, thedamsel and he alone, and she with her hands unbound and riding a littlehorse." Of these tidings Ralph deemed it good that all traces of herwere not lost; but his heart misgave him when he thought that by thistime she must surely be in the hands of the lord of Utterbol.