hey heard his word; and they
departed and went this way and that, gathering such small matters as
each deemed that he needed, and which he might lightly carry with him;
then they armed themselves, and would bid the squires bring them their
horses; but men told them that the said squires had gone their ways
already to the Want-way by the king's commandment: so thither they went
at once a-foot all four in company, laughing and talking together
merrily.

It must be told that this Want-way aforesaid was but four furlongs from
the House, which lay in an ingle of the river called Upmeads Water
amongst very fair meadows at the end of the upland tillage; and the
land sloped gently up toward the hill-country and the unseen mountains
on the north; but to the south was a low ridge which ran along the
water, as it wound along from west to east. Beyond the said ridge, at
a place whence you could see the higher hills to the south, that
stretched mainly east and west also, there was presently an end of the
Kingdom of Upmeads, though the neighbours on that side were peaceable
and friendly, and were wont to send gifts to King Peter. But toward
the north beyond the Want-way King Peter was lord over a good stretch
of land, and that of the best; yet was he never a rich man, for he had
no freedom to tax and tail his folk, nor forsooth would he have used it
if he had; for he was no ill man, but kindly and of measure. On these
northern marches there was war at whiles, whereas they ended in a great
forest well furnished of trees; and this wood was debateable, and King
Peter and his sons rode therein at their peril: but great plenty was
therein of all wild deer, as hart, and buck, and roe, and swine, and
bears and wolves withal. The lord on the other side thereof was a
mightier man than King Peter, albeit he was a bishop, and a baron of
Holy Church. To say sooth he was a close-fist and a manslayer; though
he did his manslaying through his vicars, the knights and men-at-arms
who held their manors of him, or whom he waged.

In that forest had King Peter's father died in battle, and his eldest
son also; therefore, being a man of peace, he rode therein but seldom,
though his sons, the three eldest of them, had both ridden therein and
ran therefrom valiantly. As for Ralph the youngest, his father would
not have him ride the Wood Debateable as yet.

So came those young men to the Want-ways, and found their father
sitting there on a heap of s