other, or is it so that God hath stricken you dumb?"

Then all they cried out with one voice: "All hail to the King, the King
of Battle!"

Spake Walter: "If I be king, will ye do my will as I bid you?"

Answered the elder: "Nought have we will to do, lord, save as thou
biddest."

Said Walter: "Thou then, wilt thou answer a question in all truth?"

"Yea, lord," said the elder, "if I may live afterward."

Then said Walter: "The woman that came with me into your Camp of the
Mountain, what hath befallen her?"

The elder answered: "Nought hath befallen her, either of good or evil,
save that she hath slept and eaten and bathed her. What, then, is the
King's pleasure concerning her?"

"That ye bring her hither to me straightway," said Walter.

"Yea," said the elder; "and in what guise shall we bring her hither?
shall she be arrayed as a servant, or a great lady?"

Then Walter pondered a while, and spake at last: "Ask her what is her
will herein, and as she will have it, so let it be. But set ye another
chair beside mine, and lead her thereto. Thou wise old man, send one or
two to bring her in hither, but abide thou, for I have a question or two
to ask of thee yet. And ye, lords, abide here the coming of my
she-fellow, if it weary you not."

So the elder spake to three of the most honourable of the lords, and they
went their ways to bring in the Maid.

CHAPTER XXXIII: CONCERNING THE FASHION OF KING-MAKING IN STARK-WALL

Meanwhile the King spake to the elder, and said: "Now tell me whereof I
am become king, and what is the fashion and cause of the king-making; for
wondrous it is to me, whereas I am but an alien amidst of mighty men."

"Lord," said the old man, "thou art become king of a mighty city, which
hath under it many other cities and wide lands, and havens by the sea-
side, and which lacketh no wealth which men desire. Many wise men dwell
therein, and of fools not more than in other lands. A valiant host shall
follow thee to battle when needs must thou wend afield; an host not to be
withstood, save by the ancient God-folk, if any of them were left upon
the earth, as belike none are. And as to the name of our said city, it
hight the City of the Stark-wall, or more shortly, Stark-wall. Now as to
the fashion of our king-making: If our king dieth and leaveth an heir
male, begotten of his body, then is he king after him; but if he die and
leave no heir, then send we out a great lord, with knights