CHAPTER 11
They Come to the Vale of Sweet Chestnuts
When they went on their way next morning they found little change inthe pass, and they rode the dread highway daylong, and it was still thesame: so they rested a little before nightfall at a place where therewas water running out of the rocks, but naught else for their avail.Ralph was merry and helpful and filled water from the runnel, andwrought what he might to make the lodging meet; and as they ate andrested he said to Ursula: "Last night it was thou that beguiled me ofmy gloom, yet thereafter till we slept it was my voice for the morepart, and not thine, that was heard in the wilderness. Now to-night itshall be otherwise, and I will but ask a question of thee, and hearkento the sweetness of thy voice."
She laughed a little and very sweetly, and she said: "Forsooth, dearfriend, I spoke to thee that I might hear thy voice for the more part,and not mine, that was heard in the desert; but when I heard thee, Ideemed that the world was yet alive for us to come back to."
He was silent awhile, for his heart was pierced with the sweetness ofher speech, and he had fain have spoken back as sweetly as a man might;yet he could not because he feared her somewhat, lest she should turncold to him; therefore himseemed that he spoke roughly, as he said:"Nevertheless, my friend, I beseech thee to tell me of thine old home,even as last night I told thee of mine."
"Yea," she said, "with a good will." And straightway she fell totelling him of her ways when she was little, and of her father andmother, and of her sister that had died, and the brother whom Ralph hadseen at Bourton Abbas: she told also of bachelors who had wooed her,and jested concerning them, yet kindly and without malice, and talkedso sweetly and plainly, that the wilderness was become a familiar placeto Ralph, and he took her hand in the dusk and said: "But, my friend,how was it with the man for whom thou wert weeping when I first fell inwith thee at Bourton Abbas?"
She said: "I will tell thee plainly, as a friend may to a friend.Three hours had not worn from thy departure ere tidings came to meconcerning him, that neither death nor wounding had befallen him; andthat his masterless horse and bloodstained saddle were but a device tothrow dust into our eyes, so that there might be no chase after him bythe men of the Abbot's bailiff, and that he might lightly do as hewould, to wit, swear himself into the riders of the Burg of the FourFriths; for, in sooth, he was weary of me and mine. Yet further, Imust needs tell thee that I know now, that when I wept before thee itwas partly in despite, because I had found out in my heart (though Ibade it not tell me so much) that I loved him but little."
"Yea," said Ralph, "and when didst thou come to that knowledge of thineheart?"
"Dear friend," she said, "mayhappen I may tell thee hereafter, but asnow I will forbear." He laughed for joy of her, and in a little thattalk fell down between them.
Despite the terror of the desert and the lonely ways, when Ralph laidhim down on his stony bed, happiness wrapped his heart about. Albeitall this while he durst not kiss or caress her, save very measurely,for he deemed that she would not suffer it; nor as yet would he ask herwherefore, though he had it in his mind that he would not alwaysforbear to ask her.
Many days they rode that pass of the mountains, though it was notalways so evil and dreadful as at the first beginning; for now againthe pass opened out into little valleys, wherein was foison of grassand sweet waters withal, and a few trees. In such places must theyneeds rest them, to refresh their horses as well as themselves, and togather food, of venison, and wild-fruit and nuts. But abiding in suchvales was very pleasant to them.
At last these said valleys came often and oftener, till it was so thatall was pretty much one valley, whiles broken by a mountain neck,whiles straitened by a ness of the mountains that jutted into it, butnever quite blind: yet was the said valley very high up, and as itwere a trench of the great mountain. So they were glad that they hadescaped from that strait prison betwixt the rock-walls, and were wellat ease: and they failed never to find the tokens that led them on theway, even as they had learned of the Sage, so that they were notbeguiled into any straying.
And now they had worn away thirty days since they had parted from theSage, and the days began to shorten and the nights to lengthen apace;when on the forenoon of a day, after they had ridden a very ruggedmountain-neck, they came down and down into a much wider valley intowhich a great reef of rocks thrust out from the high mountain, so thatthe northern half of the said vale was nigh cleft atwain by it; wellgrassed was the vale, and a fair river ran through it, and there wereon either side the water great groves of tall and great sweet-chestnutsand walnut trees, whereon the nuts were now ripe. They rejoiced asthey rode into it; for they remembered how the Sage had told themthereof, that their travel and toil should be stayed there awhile, andthat there they should winter, because of the bread which they couldmake them of the chestnuts, and the plenty of walnuts, and that withalthere was foison of venison.
So they found a ford of the river and crossed it, and went straight tothe head of the rocky ness, being shown thither by the lore of theSage, and they found in the face of the rock the mouth of a cavern, andbeside it the token of the sword and the branch. Therefore they knewthat they had come to their winter house, and they rejoiced thereat,and without more ado they got off their horses and went into thecavern. The entry thereof was low, so that they must needs creep intoit, but within it was a rock-hall, high, clean and sweet-smelling.
There then they dight their dwelling, doing all they might to be donewith their work before the winter was upon them. The day after theyhad come there they fell to on the in-gathering of their chestnutharvest, and they dried them, and made them into meal; and the walnutsthey gathered also. Withal they hunted the deer, both great and small;amongst which Ralph, not without some peril, slew two great bears, ofwhich beasts, indeed, there was somewhat more than enough, as they cameinto the dale to feed upon the nuts and the berry-trees. So they soonhad good store of peltries for their beds and their winter raiment,which Ursula fell to work on deftly, for she knew all the craft ofneedlework; and, shortly to tell it, they had enough and to spare ofvictual and raiment.