he shall do as
much or more on the east side of the Forest as my Lord Abbot hath done
in the west, and peace and good days shall abide with us." Much those
twain heeded this talk, and they prayed for that good lord, him and
his.

So they thanked that good folk and went their ways, and in an hour's
time they found the path which would do their eastering for them
toward the Abbey; and shortly to say it, they came to the guest-house
thereof two hours before it began to dusk, and were well-served by the
brethren whose office it was.

Chapter LXIV. The Carline Endeth Her Tale

When they arose on the morrow they began to think of departure, though
they would have kept them in that guest-house for many days; but both
of the twain, and especially the Maiden, deemed that, if they might,
they should be drawing nigh to that dwelling of the good Knight who
had overthrown the League of the Barons; and they both deemed that
thereabout, if anywhere, they should have tidings, even had they long
to wait for them, of that new champion whom the wise Knight had
gotten.

Now then the Carline did wisely, and she got to see he steward, and
fell to talk with him, and did him to wit that, for all the simplicity
of their raiment, they had both the will and the might to make a fair
oblation to the Saint; and she took from the aforesaid necklace two
sapphires and two emeralds, all great and very fair, and the steward's
eyes danced in the head of him at the sight, and he said: "This is a
fair gift indeed, and if ye will come with me into the church I will
show you to the Sub-prior, and if ye have any honest desire, as is
like, since ye have such love of Holy Church, he and I between us will
help you therein. And if not, nought is your time wasted in seeing our
church, which is of itself worth a long journey to behold."

So they went, well pleased, and when they were in the church they
found that he had said nought but the sooth: so many pillars there
were reaching up and toward the sky, so nobly wide it was, and as long
as it should be. And there were many altars therein, all as well
furnished as might be done; and long had it taken any lettered man to
have told up the number of histories on the walls and in the windows,
wherein they were all as if done with gemstones; and everywhere the
fair stories told as if they were verily alive, and as if they who did
them had seen them going on on the earth and in the heavens. So the
two waited t