The Well at the World's End: A Tale

by William Morris

  CHAPTER 34

  The Lord of Utterbol Will Wot of Ralph's Might and Minstrelsy

  A little before sunset they made halt for the night, and Ralph wasshown to a tent as erst, and had meat and drink good enough brought tohim. But somewhat after he had done eating comes David to him andsays: "Up, young man! and come to my lord, he asketh for thee."

  "What will he want with me?" said Ralph.

  "Yea, that is a proper question to ask!" quoth David; "as though theknife should ask the cutler, what wilt thou cut with me? Dost thoudeem that I durst ask him of his will with thee?" "I am ready to gowith thee," said Ralph.

  So they went forth; but Ralph's heart fell and he sickened at thethought of seeing that man again. Nevertheless he set his face asbrass, and thrust back both his fear and his hatred for a fitteroccasion.

  Soon they came into the pavilion of the Lord, who was sitting there asyester eve, save that his gown was red, and done about with gold andturquoise and emerald. David brought Ralph nigh to his seat, but spakenot. The mighty lord was sitting with his head drooping, and his armhanging over his knee, with a heavy countenance as though he werebrooding matters which pleased him naught. But in a while he sat upwith a start, and turned about and saw David standing there with Ralph,and spake at once like a man waking up: "He that sold thee to me saidthat thou wert of avail for many things. Now tell me, what canst thoudo?"

  Ralph so hated him, that he was of half a mind to answer naught save bysmiting him to slay him; but there was no weapon anigh, and life wassweet to him with all the tale that was lying ahead. So he answeredcoldly: "It is sooth, lord, that I can do more than one deed."

  "Canst thou back a horse?" said the Lord. Said Ralph: "As well asmany." Said the Lord: "Canst thou break a wild horse, and shoe him,and physic him?"

  "Not worse than some," said Ralph.

  "Can'st thou play with sword and spear?" said the Lord.

  "Better than some few," said Ralph. "How shall I know that?" said theLord. Said Ralph: "Try me, lord!" Indeed, he half hoped that if itcame to that, he might escape in the hurley.

  The Lord looked on him and said: "Well, it may be tried. But here isa cold and proud answerer, David. I misdoubt me whether it be worthwhile bringing him home."

  David looked timidly on Ralph and said: "Thou hast paid the price forhim, lord."

  "Yea, that is true," said the Lord. "Thou! can'st thou play at thechess?" "Yea," said Ralph. "Can'st thou music?" said the other."Yea," said Ralph, "when I am merry, or whiles indeed when I am sad."

  The lord said: "Make thyself merry or sad, which thou wilt; but sing,or thou shalt be beaten. Ho! Bring ye the harp." Then they brought itas he bade.

  But Ralph looked to right and left and saw no deliverance, and knewthis for the first hour of his thralldom. Yet, as he thought of itall, he remembered that if he would do, he must needs bear and forbear;and his face cleared, and he looked round about again and let his eyesrest calmly on all eyes that he met till they came on the Lord's faceagain. Then he let his hand fall into the strings and they fella-tinkling sweetly, like unto the song of the winter robin, and at lasthe lifted his voice and sang:

  Still now is the stithy this morning unclouded, Nought stirs in the thorp save the yellow-haired maid A-peeling the withy last Candlemas shrouded From the mere where the moorhen now swims unafraid.

  For over the Ford now the grass and the clover Fly off from the tines as the wind driveth on; And soon round the Sword-howe the swathe shall lie over, And to-morrow at even the mead shall be won.

  But the Hall of the Garden amidst the hot morning, It drew my feet thither; I stood at the door, And felt my heart harden 'gainst wisdom and warning As the sun and my footsteps came on to the floor.

  When the sun lay behind me, there scarce in the dimness I say what I sought for, yet trembled to find; But it came forth to find me, until the sleek slimness Of the summer-clad woman made summer o'er kind.

  There we the once-sundered together were blended, We strangers, unknown once, were hidden by naught. I kissed and I wondered how doubt was all ended, How friendly her excellent fairness was wrought.

  Round the hall of the Garden the hot sun is burning, But no master nor minstrel goes there in the shade, It hath never a warden till comes the returning, When the moon shall hang high and all winds shall be laid.

  Waned the day and I hied me afield, and thereafter I sat with the mighty when daylight was done, But with great men beside me, midst high-hearted laughter, I deemed me of all men the gainfullest one.

  To wisdom I hearkened; for there the wise father Cast the seed of his learning abroad o'er the hall,

  Till men's faces darkened, but mine gladdened rather With the thought of the knowledge I knew over all.

  Sang minstrels the story, and with the song's welling Men looked on each other and glad were they grown, But mine was the glory of the tale and its telling How the loved and the lover were naught but mine own.

  When he was done all kept silence till they should know whether the lord should praise the song or blame; and he said naught for a good while, but sat as if pondering: but at last he spake: "Thou art young, and would that we were young also! Thy song is sweet, and it pleaseth me, who am a man of war, and have seen enough and to spare of rough work, and would any day rather see a fair woman than a band of spears. But it shall please my lady wife less: for of love, and fair women, and their lovers she hath seen enough; but of war nothing save its shows and pomps; wherefore she desireth to hear thereof. Now sing of battle!"

  Ralph thought awhile and began to smite the harp while he conned over asong which he had learned one yule-tide from a chieftain who had cometo Upmeads from the far-away Northland, and had abided there tillspring was waning into summer, and meanwhile he taught Ralph this songand many things else, and his name was Sir Karr Wood-neb. This song nowRalph sang loud and sweet, though he were now a thrall in an alien land:

  Leave we the cup! For the moon is up, And bright is the gleam Of the rippling stream, That runneth his road To the old abode, Where the walls are white In the moon and the night; The house of the neighbour that drave us away When strife ended labour amidst of the hay, And no road for our riding was left us but one Where the hill's brow is hiding that earth's ways are done, And the sound of the billows comes up at the last Like the wind in the willows ere autumn is past.

  But oft and again Comes the ship from the main, And we came once more And no lading we bore But the point and the edge, And the ironed ledge, And the bolt and the bow, And the bane of the foe. To the House 'neath the mountain we came in the morn, Where welleth the fountain up over the corn, And the stream is a-running fast on to the House Of the neighbours uncunning who quake at the mouse, As their slumber is broken; they know not for why; Since yestreen was not token on earth or in sky.

  Come, up, then up! Leave board and cup, And follow the gleam Of the glittering stream That leadeth the road To the old abode, High-walled and white In the moon and the night; Where low lies the neighbour that drave us away Sleep-sunk from his labour amidst of the hay. No road for our riding is left us save one, Where the hills' brow is hiding the city undone, And the wind in the willows is with us at last, And the house of the billows is done and o'er-past.

  Haste! mount and haste Ere the short night waste, For night and day, Late turned away, Draw nigh again All kissing-fain; And the morn and the moon Shall be married full soon. So ride we together with wealth-winning wand, The steel o'er the leather, the ash in the hand. Lo! white walls before us, and high are they built; But the luck that outwore us now lies on their guilt; Lo! the open gate biding the first of the sun, And to peace are we riding when slaughter is done.

  When Ral
ph had done singing, all folk fell to praising his song,whereas the Lord had praised the other one; but the Lord said, lookingat Ralph askance meanwhile: "Yea, if that pleaseth me not, and I takebut little keep of it, it shall please my wife to her heart's root; andthat is the first thing. Hast thou others good store, new-comer?""Yea, lord," said Ralph. "And canst thou tell tales of yore agone, andof the fays and such-like? All that she must have." "Some deal I can ofthat lore," said Ralph.

  Then the Lord sat silent, and seemed to be pondering: at last he said,as if to himself: "Yet there is one thing: many a blencher can sing ofbattle; and it hath been seen, that a fair body of a man is whiles softamidst the hard hand-play. Thou! Morfinn's luck! art thou of any usein the tilt-yard?" "Wilt thou try me, lord?" said Ralph, lookingsomewhat brisker. Said the Lord: "I deem that I may find a man or twofor thee, though it is not much our manner here; but now go thou!David, take the lad away to his tent, and get him a flask of wine ofthe best to help out thy maundering with him."

  Therewith they left the tent, and Ralph walked by David sadly and withhanging head at first; but in a while he called to mind that, whateverbetid, his life was safe as yet; that every day he was drawing nigherto the Well at the World's End; and that it was most like that he shallfall in with that Dorothea of his dream somewhere on the way thereto.So he lifted up his head again, and was singing to himself as hestooped down to enter into his tent.

  Next day naught happed to tell of save that they journeyed on; the daywas cloudy, so that Ralph saw no sign of the distant mountains; everthe land was the same, but belike somewhat more beset with pinewoods;they saw no folk at all on the road. So at even Ralph slept in histent, and none meddled with him, save that David came to talk with himor he slept, and was merry and blithe with him, and he brought with himOtter, the captain of the guard, who was good company.

  Thus wore three days that were hazy and cloudy, and the Lord sent nomore for Ralph, who on the road spake for the more part with Otter, andliked him not ill; howbeit it seemed of him that he would make no moreof a man's life than of a rabbit's according as his lord might bid slayor let live.

  The three hazy days past, it fell to rain for four days, so that Ralphcould see little of the face of the land; but he noted that they wentup at whiles, and never so much down as up, so that they were wendingup hill on the whole.

  On the ninth day of his captivity the rain ceased and it was sunny andwarm but somewhat hazy, so that naught could be seen afar, but the landnear-hand rose in long, low downs now, and was quite treeless, savewhere was a hollow here and there and a stream running through it,where grew a few willows, but alders more abundantly.

  This day he rode by Otter, who said presently: "Well, youngling of theNorth, to-morrow we shall see a new game, thou and I, if the weather befair." "Yea," said Ralph, "and what like shall it be?" Said Otter, "Atmid-morn we shall come into a fair dale amidst the downs, where be somehouses and a tower of the Lord's, so that that place is called the Daleof the Tower: there shall we abide a while to gather victual, a day ortwo, or three maybe: so my Lord will hold a tourney there: that is tosay that I myself and some few others shall try thy manhood somewhat.""What?" said Ralph, "are the new colt's paces to be proven? And how ifhe fail?"

  Quoth Otter, laughing: "Fail not, I rede thee, or my lord's love forthee shall be something less than nothing." "And then will he slay me?"said Ralph. Said Otter: "Nay I deem not, at least not at first: hewill have thee home to Utterbol, to make the most of his bad bargain,and there shalt thou be a mere serving-thrall, either in the house orthe field: where thou shalt be well-fed (save in times of scarcity),and belike well beaten withal." Said Ralph, somewhat downcast: "Yea, Iam a thrall, who was once a knight. But how if thou fail before me?"Otter laughed again: "That is another matter; whatever I do my Lordwill not lose me if he can help it; but as for the others who shallstand before thy valiancy, there will be some who will curse the daywhereon my lord bought thee, if thou turnest out a good spear, as yecall it in your lands. Howsoever, that is not thy business; and I bidthee fear naught; for thou seemest to be a mettle lad."

  So they talked, and that day wore like the others, but the haze did notclear off, and the sun went down red. In the evening David talked withRalph in his tent, and said: "If to-morrow be clear, knight, thou shaltsee a new sight when thou comest out from the canvas." Said Ralph: "Isuppose thy meaning is that we shall see the mountains from hence?""Yea," said David; "so hold up thine heart when that sight first comethbefore thine eyes. As for us, we are used to the sight, and that froma place much nigher to the mountains: yet they who are soft-heartedamongst us are overcome at whiles, when there is storm and tempest, andevil tides at hand."

  Said Ralph: "And how far then are we from Utterbol?" Said David:"After we have left Bull-mead in the Dale of the Tower, where to-morrowthou art to run with the spear, it is four days' ride to Utterness; andfrom Utterness ye may come (if my lord will) unto Utterbol in twelvehours. But tell me, knight, how deemest thou of thy tiltingto-morrow?" Said Ralph: "Little should I think of it, if little layupon it." "Yea," said David, "but art thou a good tilter?" Ralphlaughed: quoth he, "That hangs on the goodness of him that tiltethagainst me: I have both overthrown, and been overthrown oft enough.Yet again, who shall judge me? for I must tell thee, that were I fairlyjudged, I should be deemed no ill spear, even when I came notuppermost: for in all these games are haps which no man may foresee."

  "Well, then," said David, "all will go well with thee for this time:for my lord will judge thee, and if it be seen that thou hast spokentruly, and art more than a little deft at the play, he will be like tomake the best of thee, since thou art already paid for." Ralph laughed:yet as though the jest pleased him but little; and they fell to talk ofother matters. And so David departed, and Ralph slept.