it in divers
wise.

So they rode to their hostel in the market place, which lay a little
back from the river in an ingle of the ridge and one of its buttresses;
and all round the said market were houses as fair as the first they had
seen: but above, on the hill-sides, save for the castle and palace of
the Queen (for a woman ruled in Goldburg), were the houses but low,
poorly built of post and pan, and thatched with straw, or reed, or
shingle. But the great church was all along one side of the market
place; and albeit this folk was somewhat wild and strange of faith for
Christian men, yet was it dainty and delicate as might be, and its
steeples and bell-towers were high and well builded, and adorned
exceeding richly.

So they lighted down at their hostel, and never had Ralph seen such
another, for the court within was very great and with a fair garden
filled with flowers and orchard-trees, and amidst it was a fountain of
fresh water, built in the goodliest fashion of many-coloured
marble-stones. And the arched and pillared way about the said court was
as fair as the cloister of a mitred abbey; and the hall for the guests
was of like fashion, vaulted with marvellous cunning, and with a row of
pillars amidmost.

There they abode in good entertainment; yet this noted Ralph, that as
goodly as was the fashion of the building of that house, yet the
hangings and beds, and stools, and chairs, and other plenishing were no
richer or better than might be seen in the hostelry of any good town.

So they went bedward, and Ralph slept dreamlessly, as was mostly his
wont.

CHAPTER 29

Of Goldburg and the Queen Thereof

On the morrow, when Ralph and Clement met in the hall, Clement spake
and said: "Lord Ralph, as I told thee in Whitwall, we chapmen are now
at the end of our outward journey, and in about twenty days time we
shall turn back to the mountains; but, as I deem, thou wilt be minded
to follow up thy quest of the damsel, and whatsoever else thou mayst be
seeking. Now this thou mayst well do whiles we are here in Goldburg,
and yet come back hither in time to fare back with us: and also, if
thou wilt, thou mayst have fellows in thy quest, to wit some of those
our men-at-arms, who love thee well. But now, when thou hast done thy
best these days during, if thou hast then found naught, I counsel thee
and beseech thee to come thy ways back with us, that we twain may wend
to Upmeads together, where thou shalt live we