The Well at the World's End: A Tale

by William Morris

  CHAPTER 13

  The Streets of the Burg of the Four Friths

  He went about the streets and found them all much like to the one whichthey had entered by the north gate; he saw no poor or wretched houses,and none very big as of great lords; they were well and stoutlybuilded, but as aforesaid not much adorned either with carven work orpainting: there were folk enough in the streets, and now Ralph, as waslike to be, looked specially at the women, and thought many of themlittle better-favoured than the men, being both dark and low; neitherwere they gaily clad, though their raiment, like the houses, was stoutand well wrought. But here and there he came on a woman taller andwhiter than the others, as though she were of another blood; all suchof these as he saw were clad otherwise than the darker women: theirheads uncoifed, uncovered save for some garland or silken band: theirgowns yellow like wheat-straw, but gaily embroidered; sleeveless withaland short, scarce reaching to the ancles, and whiles so thin that theywere rather clad with the embroidery than the cloth; shoes they hadnot, but sandals bound on their naked feet with white thongs, and eachbore an iron ring about her right arm.

  The more part of the men wore weapons at their sides and had staves inhand, and were clad in short jerkins brown or blue of colour, andlooked ready for battle if any moment should call them thereto; butamong them were men of different favour and stature from these, tallerfor the most part, unarmed, and clad in long gowns of fair colours withcloths of thin and gay-coloured web twisted about their heads. Thesehe took for merchants, as they were oftenest standing in and about thebooths and shops, whereof there were some in all the streets, thoughthe market for victuals and such like he found over for that day, andbut scantily peopled.

  Out of one of these markets, which was the fish and fowl market, hecame into a long street that led him down to a gate right over againstthat whereby he had entered the Burg; and as he came thereto he sawthat there was a wide way clear of all houses inside of the wall, sothat men-at-arms might go freely from one part to the other; and he hadalso noted that a wide way led from each port out of the great place,and each ended not but in a gate. But as to any castle in the town, hesaw none; and when he asked a burgher thereof, the carle laughed in hisface, and said to him that the whole Burg, houses and all, was acastle, and that it would turn out to be none of the easiest to win.And forsooth Ralph himself was much of that mind.

  Now he was just within the south gate when he held this talk, and therewere many folk thereby already, and more flocking thereto; so he stoodthere to see what should betide; and anon he heard great blowing ofhorns and trumpets all along the wall, and, as he deemed, other hornsanswered from without; and so it was; for soon the withoutward hornsgrew louder, and the folk fell back on either side of the way, and nextthe gates were thrown wide open (which before had been shut save for awicket) and thereafter came the first of a company of men-at-arms,foot-men, with bills some, and some with bows, and all-armed knightsand sergeants a-horseback.

  So streamed in these weaponed men till Ralph saw that it was a greathost that was entering the Burg; and his heart rose within him, sowarrior-like they were of men and array, though no big men of theirbodies; and many of them bore signs of battle about them, both in thebattering of their armour and the rending of their raiment, and theclouts tied about the wounds on their bodies.

  After a while among the warriors came herds of neat and flocks of sheepand strings of horses, of the spoil which the host had lifted; and thenwains filled, some with weapons and war gear, and some with bales ofgoods and household stuff. Last came captives, some going afoot andsome for weariness borne in wains; for all these war-taken thralls werewomen and women-children; of males there was not so much as a littlelad. Of the women many seemed fair to Ralph despite their grief andtravel; and as he looked on them he deemed that they must be of thekindred and nation of the fair white women he had seen in the streets;though they were not clad like those, but diversely.

  So Ralph gazed on this pageant till all had passed, and he was wearywith the heat and the dust and the confused clamour of shouting andlaughter and talking; and whereas most of the folk followed after thehost and their spoil, the streets of the town there about were soonleft empty and peaceful. So he turned into a street narrower thanmost, that went east from the South Gate and was much shaded from theafternoon sun, and went slowly down it, meaning to come about theinside of the wall till he should hit the East Gate, and so into theGreat Place when the folk should have gone their ways home.

  He saw no folk in the street save here and there an old woman sittingat the door of her house, and maybe a young child with her. As he cameto where the street turned somewhat, even such a carline was sitting ona clean white door-step on the sunny side, somewhat shaded by a tallrose-laurel tree in a great tub, and she sang as she sat spinning, andRalph stayed to listen in his idle mood, and he heard how she sang in adry, harsh voice:

  Clashed sword on shield In the harvest field; And no man blames The red red flames, War's candle-wick On roof and rick. Now dead lies the yeoman unwept and unknown On the field he hath furrowed, the ridge he hath sown: And all in the middle of wethers and neat The maidens are driven with blood on their feet; For yet 'twixt the Burg-gate and battle half-won The dust-driven highway creeps uphill and on, And the smoke of the beacons goes coiling aloft, While the gathering horn bloweth loud, louder and oft.

  Throw wide the gates For nought night waits; Though the chase is dead The moon's o'erhead And we need the clear Our spoil to share. Shake the lots in the helm then for brethren are we, And the goods of my missing are gainful to thee. Lo! thine are the wethers, and his are the kine; And the colts of the marshland unbroken are thine, With the dapple-grey stallion that trampled his groom; And Giles hath the gold-blossomed rose of the loom. Lo! leaps out the last lot and nought have I won, But the maiden unmerry, by battle undone.

  Even as her song ended came one of those fair yellow-gowned damselsround the corner of the street, bearing in her hand a light basket fullof flowers: and she lifted up her head and beheld Ralph there; then shewent slowly and dropped her eyelids, and it was pleasant to Ralph tobehold her; for she was as fair as need be. Her corn-coloured gown wasdainty and thin, and but for its silver embroidery had hidden her limbsbut little; the rosiness of her ancles showed amidst her whitesandal-thongs, and there were silver rings and gold on her arms alongwith the iron ring.

  Now she lifted up her eyes and looked shyly at Ralph, and he smiled ather well-pleased, and deemed it would be good to hear her voice; so hewent up to her and greeted her, and she seemed to take his greetingwell, though she glanced swiftly at the carline in the doorway.

  Said Ralph: "Fair maiden, I am a stranger in this town, and have seenthings I do not wholly understand; now wilt thou tell me before I askthe next question, who will be those war-taken thralls whom even now Isaw brought into the Burg by the host? of what nation be they, and ofwhat kindred?"

  Straightway was the damsel all changed; she left her dainty tricks, anddrew herself up straight and stiff. She looked at him in the eyes,flushing red, and with knit brows, a moment, and then passed by himwith swift and firm feet as one both angry and ashamed.

  But the carline who had beheld the two with a grin on her wrinkled facechanged aspect also, and cried out fiercely after the damsel, and said:"What! dost thou flee from the fair young man, and he so kind and softwith thee, thou jade? Yea, I suppose thou dost fetch and carry forsome mistress who is young and a fool, and who has not yet learned howto deal with the daughters of thine accursed folk. Ah! if I had butmoney to buy some one of you, and a good one, she should do somethingelse for me than showing her fairness to young men; and I would pay herfor her long legs and her white skin, till she should curse her fatethat she had not been born little and dark-skinned and free, and withheels un-bloodied with the blood of her back."

  Thus she went on, though the damsel was long out of ear-shot of hercurses; and Ralph tarrie
d not to get away from her spiteful babble,which he now partly understood; and that all those yellow-clad damselswere thralls to the folk of the Burg; and belike were of the kindred ofthose captives late-taken whom he had seen amidst the host at itsentering into the Burg.

  So he wandered away thence thinking on what he should do till the sunwas set, and he had come into the open space underneath the walls, andhad gone along it till he came to the East Gate: there he looked aroundhim a little and found people flowing back from the Great Place,whereto they had gathered to see the host mustered and the spoilblessed; then he went on still under the wall, and noted not that hereand there a man turned about to look upon him curiously, for he wasdeep in thought, concerning the things which he had seen and heard of,and pondered much what might have befallen his brethren since theysundered at the Want-way nigh to the High House of Upmeads. Withal thechief thing that he desired was to get him away from the Burg, for hefelt himself unfree therein; and he said to himself that if he wereforced to dwell among this folk, that he had better never have stolenhimself away from his father and mother; and whiles even he thoughtthat he would do his best on the morrow to get him back home to Upmeadsagain. But then when he thought of how his life would go in his oldhome, there seemed to him a lack, and when he questioned himself as towhat that lack was, straightway he seemed to see that Lady of theWildwood standing before the men-at-arms in her scanty raiment theminute before his life was at adventure because of them. And in soothhe smiled to himself then with a beating heart, as he told himself thatabove all things he desired to see that Lady, whatever she might be,and that he would follow his adventure to the end until he met her.

  Amidst these thoughts he came unto the North Gate, whereby he had firstentered the Burg, and by then it was as dark as the summer night wouldbe; so he woke up from his dream, as it were, and took his way brisklyback to the Flower de Luce.