rd that quarter; and ever and anon
she cried out: "Be mist and mirk, and bewilderment and fear, before
those faces of our foemen! Be a wall behind us that they may not
pierce through! Mirk behind us, light before us!" So she went on till
she had emptied the said bag, and then she fell aback and lay on the
road as one dead. And the Maiden did as she had bidden and meddled not
with her. But at last, and it was another hour, she began to come to
herself, and the Maiden sprinkled her with water and gave her wine to
drink, and the old woman arose and was herself again and of good
cheer; and she stowed away her bag, and they drew forth victual and
ate and drank kindly and merrily together.

So they gat to the road again when when it yet lacked three hours of
sunset, but rode not after night had fallen lest they should miss
their way. And no shelter they had that night but the grass and the
trees and the well-bedecked heavens, and all that was sweet enough for
them.

On the morrow they gat to the road early enough, and soon began to
come amongst the cots and the homesteads, and saw the folk labouring
afield, and none were otherwise than friendly to them; and a company
of husbandmen, carles and queans, hailed them from the ingle of an
acre where they were eating their dinner and bade light down and
share, and they did so with a good will; and the upland folk looked
with wonder on the Maiden and her beauty, and gave her much worship.
But the Carline talked with them, and asked them much of their land
and how it sped with them; and they said it was well with them, for
that they dwelt in good peace, whereas they were under the dominion of
the great Abbey, which dealt mildly with them, and would not suffer
them to be harried; and they pointed out to the newcomers a fair white
castle lying on a spur of the hills which went up to the waste
mountains, and did them to with that that was the bit and the bridle
of any wild men who might get it into their heads to break out on to
the wealth of the Holy Fathers. And there be many such, said they,
about our land, and especially a good way east and south hence where
the land marcheth on the Great Forest, which is haunted by the worst
of men, who will not be refrained but by great might and great heed.
"And now," said they, "we here tell of that mighty and good lord, the
Knight of Longshaw, that he hath of late prevailed against his foes,
who be tyrants and oppressors; and if that be sooth,