The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 5

  They Come on the Sage of Swevenham

  Night was at hand before they came to the stream that they sought.They found it cleaving the pine-wood, which held on till the very bankof it, and was thick again on the further side in a few yards' space.The stream was high-banked and ran deep and strong. Said Ursula asthey came up to it: "We may not cross it, but it matters not; and it isto-morrow that we must ride up along it."

  So they abode there, and made a fire by the waterside, and watchedthere, turn and turn about, till it was broad day. Naught befell totell of, save that twice in the night Ralph deemed that he heard a lionroar.

  They got to horse speedily when they were both awake, and rode up thestream, and began to go up hill, and by noon were come into a rough andshaggy upland, whence from time to time they could see the huge wall ofthe mountains, which yet seemed to Ralph scarce nigher, if at all, thanwhen he had beheld it ere he had come to Vale Turris. The way wasrough day-long, and now and again they found it hard to keep the streamin sight, as especially when it cleft a hill, and ran between sheercliffs with no low shore on either side.

  They made way but slowly, so that at last Ralph lost patience somewhat,and said that he had but little hope of falling in with the Sage thatday or any day. But Ursula was of good cheer, and mocked him merrilybut sweetly, till his heart was lightened again. Withal she bade himseek some venison, since they were drawing out the time, and she knewnot how long it would be ere they came to the Sage's dwelling.Therefore he betook him to the Turk bow, and shot a leash ofheath-fowl, and they supped on the meat merrily in the wilderness.

  But if they were merry, they were soon weary; for they journeyed onafter sunset that night, since the moon was up, and there was no thickwood to turn dusk into dark for them. Their resting-place was a smoothpiece of greensward betwixt the water and a half circle of steep bentthat well nigh locked it about.

  There then they abode, and in the stillness of the night heard athundering sound coming down the wind to them, which they deemed wasthe roaring of distant waters; and when they went to the lip of theriver they saw flocks of foam floating by, wherefore they thoughtthemselves to be near some great mountain-neck whereover the water wasfalling from some high place. But with no to-do they lay down upon thegreensward this second night of their fellowship, and waked later thanon the day before; for so weary had they been, that they had kept butill watch in the dark night, and none at all after dawn began toglimmer.

  Now Ralph sat up and saw Ursula still sleeping; then he rose to hisfeet and looked about him, and saw their two horses cropping the grassunder the bent, and beside them a man, tall and white bearded, leaningon his staff. Ralph caught up his sword and went toward the man, andthe sun gleamed from the blade just as the hoary-one turned to him; helifted up his staff as if in greeting to Ralph, and came toward him,and even therewith Ursula awoke and arose, and saw the greybeard atonce; and she cried out: "Take heed to thy sword, fellow-farer, for,praised be the saints, this is the Sage of Swevenham!"

  So they stood there together till the Sage came up to them and kissedthem both, and said: "I am glad that ye are come at last; for I lookedfor you no later than this. So now mount your horses and come with mestraightway; because life is short to them who have not yet drunk ofthe Well at the World's End. Moreover if ye chance to come on theriders of Utterbol, it shall go hard with you unless I be at hand."

  Ralph saw of him that though he was an old hoar man to look on, yet hewas strong and sturdy, tall, and of goodly presence, with ruddy cheeks,and red lips and bright eyes, and that the skin of his face and handswas nowise wrinkled: but about his neck was a pair of beads like untohis own gossip's gift.

  So now they mounted at once, and with no more words he led them aboutthe bent, and they came in a little while into the wood again, but thistime it was of beech, with here and there an open place sprinkled aboutwith hollies and thorns; and they rode down the wide slope of a longhill, and up again on the other side.

  Thus they went for an hour, and the elder spake not again, though itmight have been deemed by his eyes that he was eager and fain. Theyalso held their peace; for the hope and fear of their hearts kept themfrom words.

  They came to the hill-top, and found a plain land, though the closewood still held on a while; but soon they rode into a clearing of sometwelve acres, where were fenced crofts with goats therein, and threegarths of tillage, wherein the wheat-shocks were yet standing, andthere were coleworts and other pot-herbs also. But at the further end,whereas the wood closed in again, was a little house builded of timber,strong and goodly, and thatched with wheat-straw; and beside it was abubbling spring which ran in a brook athwart the said clearing; overthe house-door was a carven rood, and a bow and short spear were leanedagainst the wall of the porch.

  Ralph looked at all closely, and wondered whether this were perchancethe cot wherein the Lady of Abundance had dwelt with the evil witch.But the elder looked on him, and said: "I know thy thought, and it isnot so; that house is far away hence; yet shalt thou come thereto.Now, children, welcome to the house of him who hath found what ye seek,but hath put aside the gifts which ye shall gain; and who belike shallremember what ye shall forget."

  Therewith he brought them into the house, and into a chamber, theplenishing whereof was both scanty and rude. There he bade them sit,and brought them victual, to wit, cheese and goats' milk and bread, andthey fell to speech concerning the woodland ways, and the seasons, andother unweighty matters. But as for the old man he spoke but fewwords, and as one unused to speech, albeit he was courteous anddebonair. But when they had eaten and drunk he spake to them and said:

  "Ye have sought to me because ye would find the Well at the World'sEnd, and would have lore of me concerning the road thereto; but beforeI tell you what ye would, let me know what ye know thereof already."

  Quoth Ralph: "For me, little enough I know, save that I must come tothe Rock of the Fighting Man, and that thou knowest the way thither."

  "And thou, damsel," quoth the long-hoary, "what knowest thou? Must Itell thee of the way through the mountains and the Wall of the World,and the Winter Valley, and the Folk Innocent, and the Cot on the Way,and the Forest of Strange Things and the Dry Tree?"

  "Nay," she said, "of all this I wot somewhat, but it may be not enough."

  Said the Sage: "Even so it was with me, when a many years ago I dweltnigh to Swevenham, and folk sought to me for lore, and I told them whatI knew; but maybe it was not enough, for they never came back; but diedbelike or ever they had seen the Well. And then I myself, when I wasgotten very old, fared thither a-seeking it, and I found it; for I wasone of those who bore the chaplet of the seekers. And now I know all,and can teach all. But tell me, damsel, whence hadst thou this lore?"

  Said Ursula: "I had it of a very fair woman who, as it seemeth, wasLady and Queen of the Champions of Hampton under the Scaur, not farfrom mine own land."

  "Yea," quoth the Sage, "and what hath befallen her? ... Nay, nay," saidhe, "I need not ask; for I can see by your faces that she is dead.Therefore hath she been slain, or otherwise she had not been dead. SoI ask you if ye were her friends?"

  Quoth Ursula; "Surely she was my friend, since she befriended me; andthis man I deem was altogether her friend."

  Ralph hung his head, and the Sage gazed on him, but said naught. Thenhe took a hand of each of them in his hands, and held them a whilesilently, and Ralph was still downcast and sad, but Ursula looked onhim fondly.

  Then spake the Sage: "So it is, Knight, that now I seem to understandwhat manner of man thou art, and I know what is between you two;whereof I will say naught, but will let the tree grow according to itsseed. Moreover, I wot now that my friend of past years would have memake you both wise in the lore of the Well at the World's End; and whenI have done this, I can do no more, but let your good hap prevail if soit may. Abide a little, therefore."

  Then he went unto an ark, and took thence a book wrapped in a piece ofprecious w
eb of silk and gold, and bound in cuir-bouilly wrought instrange devices. Then said he: "This book was mine heritage atSwevenham or ever I became wise, and it came from my father'sgrandsire: and my father bade me look on it as the dearest ofpossessions; but I heeded it naught till my youth had waned, and mymanhood was full of weariness and grief. Then I turned to it, and readin it, and became wise, and the folk sought to me, and afterwards thatbefell which was foredoomed. Now herein amongst other matters iswritten of that which ye desire to know, and I will read the same toyou and expound it. Yet were it not well to read in this book under aroof, nay, though it be as humble and innocent as this. Moreover, itis not meet that ye should hearken to this wisdom of old times clad asye are; thou, knight, in the raiment of the manslayer, with the rod ofwrath hanging at thy side; and thou, maiden, attired in the garments ofthe tyrant, which were won of him by lying and guile."

  Then he went to another ark, and took from it two bundles, which hegave, the one to Ralph, the other to Ursula, and said: "Thou, maiden,go thou into the inner chamber here and doff thy worldly raiment, anddon that which thou wilt find wrapped in this cloth; and thou, knight,take this other and get thee into the thicket which is behind thehouse, and there do the like, and abide there till we come to thee."

  So Ralph took the bundle, and came out into the thicket and unarmedhim, and did on the raiment which he found in the cloth, which was buta long gown of white linen, much like to an alb, broidered about thewrists and the hems and collar with apparels of gold and silk, girtwith a red silk girdle. There he abode a little, wondering at allthese things and all that had befallen him since he had left Upmeads.

  Anon the two others came to him, and Ursula was clad in the same-likeraiment and the elder had the book in his hand. He smiled on Ralph andnodded friendly to him. As to Ursula, she flushed as red as a rosewhen she set eyes on him, for she said to herself that he was as one ofthe angels which she had seen painted in the choir of St. Mary's atHigham.