The Well at the World's End: A Tale
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CHAPTER 33
Ralph is Brought on the Road Towards Utterbol
But now when it was morning they struck the tents and laded them onwains, and went their ways the selfsame road that Ralph had been mindedfor yesterday; to wit the road to Utterness; but now must he ride itunarmed and guarded: other shame had he none. Indeed David, who stuckclose to his side all day, was so sugary sweet with him, and praisedand encouraged him so diligently, that Ralph began to have misgivingsthat all this kindness was but as the flower-garlands wherewith theheathen times men were wont to deck the slaughter-beasts for theblood-offering. Yea, and into his mind came certain tales of how therewere heathen men yet in the world, who beguiled men and women, andoffered them up to their devils, whom they called gods: but all thisran off him soon, when he bethought him how little wisdom there was inrunning to meet the evil, which might be on the way, and that way arough and perilous one. So he plucked up heart, and spake freely andgaily with David and one or two others who rode anigh.
They were amidst of the company: the Lord went first after hisfore-runners in a litter done about with precious cloths; and two scorehorsemen came next, fully armed after their manner. Then rode Ralphwith David and a half dozen of the magnates: then came a sort of cooksand other serving men, but none without a weapon, and last anotherscore of men-at-arms: so that he saw that fleeing was not to be thoughtof though he was not bound, and save for lack of weapons rode like afree man.
The day was clear as yesterday had been, wherefore again Ralph saw thedistant mountain-top like a cloud; and he gazed at it long till Davidsaid: "I see that thou art gazing hard at the mountains, and perchanceart longing to be beyond them, were it but to see what like the land ison the further side. If all tales be true thou art best this sidethereof, whatever thy lot may be."
"Lieth death on the other side then?" quoth Ralph. "Yea," said David,"but that is not all, since he is not asleep elsewhere in the world:but men say that over there are things to be seen which might slay astrong man for pure fear, without stroke of sword or dint of axe."
"Yea," said Ralph, "but how was it then with him that builded Goldburg?"
"O," said David, "hast thou heard that tale? Well, they say of him,who certes went over those mountains, and drank of the Well at theWorld's End, that he was one of the lucky: yet for all his luck neverhad he drunk the draught had he not been helped by one who had learnedmany things, a woman to wit. For he was one of them with whom allwomen are in love; and thence indeed was his luck....Moreover, when allis said, 'tis but a tale."
"Yea," quoth Ralph laughing, "even as the tales of the ghosts and bugsthat abide the wayfarer on the other side of yonder white movelesscloud."
David laughed in his turn and said: "Thou hast me there; and whetheror no, these tales are nothing to us, who shall never leave Utterbolagain while we live, save in such a company as this." Then he held hispeace, but presently spake again: "Hast thou heard anything, then, ofthose tales of the Well at the World's End? I mean others beside thatconcerning the lord of Goldburg?"
"Yea, surely I have," said Ralph, nowise changing countenance. SaidDavid: "Deemest thou aught of them? deemest thou that it may be truethat a man may drink of the Well and recover his youth thereby?"
Ralph laughed and said: "Master, it is rather for me to ask theehereof, than thou me, since thou dwellest so much nigher thereto than Ihave done heretofore."
David drew up close to him, and said softly: "Nigher? Yea, but belikenot so much nigher."
"How meanest thou?" said Ralph.
Said David: "Is it so nigh that a man may leave home and come theretoin his life-time?"
"Yea," said Ralph, "in my tales it is."
Said the old man still softlier: "Had I deemed that true I had triedthe adventure, whatever might lie beyond the mountains, but (and hesighed withal) I deem it untrue."
Therewith dropped the talk of that matter: and in sooth Ralph wasloath to make many words thereof, lest his eagerness shine through, andall the story of him be known.
Anon it was noon, and the lord bade all men stay for meat: so hisserving men busied them about his dinner, and David went with them.Then the men-at-arms bade Ralph sit among them and share their meat.So they sat down all by the wayside, and they spake kindly and friendlyto Ralph, and especially their captain, a man somewhat low of stature,but long-armed like the Lord, a man of middle age, beardless and spareof body, but wiry and tough-looking, with hair of the hue of the dustof the sandstone quarry. This man fell a-talking with Ralph, and askedhim of the manner of tilting and courteous jousting between knights inthe countries of knighthood, till that talk dropped between them. ThenRalph looked round upon the land, which had now worsened again, and waslittle better than rough moorland, little fed, and not at all tilled,and he said: "This is but a sorry land for earth's increase."
"Well," said the captain, "I wot not; it beareth plover and whimbreland conies and hares; yea, and men withal, some few. And whereas itbeareth naught else, that cometh of my lord's will: for deemest thouthat he should suffer a rich land betwixt him and Goldburg, that itmight sustain an host big enough to deal with him?"
"But is not this his land?" said Ralph.
Said the captain: "Nay, and also yea. None shall dwell in it save ashe willeth, and they shall pay him tribute, be it never so little. Yetsome there are of them, who are to him as the hounds be to the hunter,and these same he even wageth, so that if aught rare and goodly comeththeir way they shall bring it to his hands; as thou thyself knowest tothy cost."
"Yea," said Ralph smiling, "and is Morfinn the Unmanned one of thesecurs?" "Yea," said the captain, with a grin, "and one of the richest ofthem, in despite of his fiddle and minstrel's gear, and his lack ofmanhood: for he is one of the cunningest of men. But my Lord unmannedhim for some good reason."
Ralph kept silence and while and then said: "Why doth the Goldburgfolk suffer all this felony, robbery and confusion, so near theirborders, and the land debateable?"
Said the captain, and again he grinned: "Passing for thy hard words,sir knight, why dost thou suffer me to lead thee along whither thouwouldest not?"
"Because I cannot help myself," said Ralph.
Said the captain: "Even so it is with the Goldburg folk: if they raisehand against some of these strong-thieves or man-stealers, he has butto send the war-arrow round about these deserts, as ye deem them, andhe will presently have as rough a company of carles for his fellows asneed be, say ten hundred of them. And the Goldburg folk are not veryhandy at a fray without their walls. Forsooth within them it isanother matter, and beside not even our Lord of Utterbol would seeGoldburg broken down, no, not for all that he might win there."
"Is it deemed a holy place in the land, then?" said Ralph.
"I wot not the meaning of holy," said the other: "but all we deem thatwhen Goldburg shall fall, the world shall change, so that livingtherein shall be hard to them that have not drunk of the water of theWell at the World's End."
Ralph was silent a while and eyed the captain curiously: then he said:"Have the Goldburgers so drunk?" Said the captain: "Nay, nay; but theword goes that under each tower of Goldburg lieth a youth and a maidenthat have drunk of the water, and might not die save by point and edge."
Then was Ralph silent again, for once more he fell pondering the matterif he had been led away to be offered as a blood offering to some ofevil gods of the land. But as he pondered a flourish of trumpets wasblown, and all men sprang up, and the captain said to Ralph: "Now hathour Lord done his dinner and we must to horse." Anon they were on theway again, and they rode long and saw little change in the aspect ofthe land, neither did that cloudlike token of the distant mountainsgrow any greater or clearer to Ralph's deeming.