sank, and he said: "Master Clement, I prithee tell
me; were it possible that the damsel whom I seek may be come to such a
pass as one of these?" "Nay," quoth Clement, "that is little like to
be; 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 for
their punishment; yet not such as she, unless the master be wholly
wearied of them, or if their wrath outrun their wits; for it is more to
the master's profit to chastise them at home; so keep a good heart I
bid thee, and maybe we shall have tidings at Whiteness."

So Ralph refrained his anxious heart, though forsooth his thought was
much 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 confused
hills that lay before the great mountains, which were now often hidden
from their sight; but whenever they appeared through the openings of
the near hills, they seemed very great and terrible; dark and bare and
stony; and Clement said that they were little better than they looked
from afar. As to Whiteness, they saw it a long way off, as it lay on a
long ridge at the end of a valley: and so long was the ridge, that
behind it was nothing green; naught but the huge and bare mountains.
The westering sun fell upon its walls and its houses, so that it looked
white indeed against those great cliffs and crags; though, said
Clement, that these were yet a good way off. Now when, after a long
ride 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, for
so steep was the hill whereon the town stood, that it needed not. Here
also was no great castle within the town as at Cheaping Knowe, and the
town itself nothing so big, but long and straggling along the top of
the ridge. Cheaping Knowe was all builded of stone; but the houses
here were of timber for the most part, done over with pargeting and
whitened well. Yet was the town more cheerful of aspect than Cheaping
Knowe, and the folk who came thronging about the chapmen at the gates
not so woe-begone, and goodly enough.

Of the lord of Whiteness, Clement told that he paid tribute to him of
Cheaping Knowe, rather for love of peace than for fear of him; for he
was no ill lord, and free men lived well under him.

So the chapmen lodged in the market-place; and in two