They had a sumpter-ass with them for their livelihood on the waste; but
they went afoot crowned with flowers, and the pipe and tabour playing
before them, and much people brought them on the way. By St.
Christopher! I can see it all as if it were yesterday. I was sorry of
the departure of the damsel; for though I was a boy I had loved her,
and she had suffered me to kiss her and toy with her; but it was soon
over. Now I call to mind that they had prayed our priest, Sir Cyprian,
to bless them on their departure, but he naysaid them; for he held that
such a quest came of the inspiration of the devils, and was but a
memory of the customs of the ancient gentiles and heathen. But as to
me, I deemed it naught, and was sorry that my white-bosomed,
sweet-breathed friend should walk away from me thus into the clouds."

"What came of it?" said Ralph, "did they come back, or any of them?" "I
wot not," said Richard, "for I was weary of Swevenham after that, so I
girt myself to a sword and laid a spear upon my shoulder and went my
ways to the Castle of the Waste March, sixty miles from Swevenham town,
and the Baron took me in and made me his man: and almost as little
profit were in my telling thee again of my deeds there, as there was in
my doing them: but the grey tower of Swevenham I have never seen again
till this hour."

Said Ralph: "Now then it behoveth me to go to Swevenham straightway:
wilt thou come with me? it seemeth to be but some four miles hence."

Richard held his peace and knit his brows as if pondering the matter,
and Ralph abided till he spake: so he said: "Foster-son, so to call
thee, thou knowest the manner of up-country carles, that tales flow
forth from them the better if they come without over much digging and
hoeing of the ground; that is, without questioning; so meseems better
it will be if I go to Swevenham alone, and better if I be asked to go,
than if I go of myself. Now to-morrow is Saturday, and high market in
Whitwall; and I am not so old but that it is likeliest that there will
be some of my fellows alive and on their legs in Swevenham: and if such
there be, there will be one at the least in the market to-morrow, and I
will be there to find him out: and then it will go hard if he bring me
not to Swevenham as a well-beloved guest; and when I am there, and
telling my tidings, and asking them of theirs, if there be any tales
concerning the Well at the World's End working in their bellies, then