The Well at the World's End: A Tale Page 5

  CHAPTER 4

  Ralph Rideth the Downs

  As for Ralph, he rode on with a merry heart, and presently came to anend of the plain country, and the great downs rose up before him with awhite road winding up to the top of them. Just before the slopes beganto rise was a little thorp beside a stream, and thereby a fair churchand a little house of Canons: so Ralph rode toward the church to see iftherein were an altar of St. Nicholas, who was his good lord andpatron, that he might ask of him a blessing on his journey. But as hecame up to the churchyard-gate he saw a great black horse tied theretoas if abiding some one; and as he lighted down from his saddle he saw aman coming hastily from out the church-door and striding swiftly towardthe said gate. He was a big man, and armed; for he had a bright steelsallet on his head, which covered his face all save the end of hischin; and plates he had on his legs and arms. He wore a green coatover his armour, and thereon was wrought in gold an image of a treeleafless: he had a little steel axe about his neck, and a great swordhung by his side. Ralph stood looking on him with his hand on thelatch of the gate, but when the man came thereto he tore it openroughly and shoved through at once, driving Ralph back, so that hewell-nigh overset him, and so sprang to his horse and swung himselfinto the saddle, just as Ralph steadied himself and ruffled up to him,half drawing his sword from the scabbard the while. But theman-at-arms cried out, "Put it back, put it back! If thou must needsdeal with every man that shoveth thee in his haste, thy life is like tobe but short."

  He was settling himself in his saddle as he spoke, and now he shook hisrein, and rode off speedily toward the hill-road. But when he was sofar off that Ralph might but see his face but as a piece of reddishcolour, he reined up for a moment of time, and turning round in hissaddle lifted up his sallet and left his face bare, and cried out as ifto Ralph, "The first time!" And then let the head-piece fall again, andset spurs to his horse and gallopped away.

  Ralph stood looking at him as he got smaller on the long white road,and wondering what this might mean, and how the unknown man should knowhim, if he did know him. But presently he let his wonder run off him,and went his ways into the church, wherein he found his good lord andfriend St. Nicholas, and so said a paternoster before his altar, andbesought his help, and made his offering; and then departed and gat tohorse again, and rode softly the way to the downs, for the day was hot.

  The way was steep and winding, with a hollow cup of the hills below it,and above it a bent so steep that Ralph could see but a few yards of iton his left hand; but when he came to the hill's brow and could lookdown on the said bent, he saw strange figures on the face thereof, doneby cutting away the turf so that the chalk might show clear. A treewith leaves was done on that hill-side, and on either hand of it abeast like a bear ramping up against the tree; and these signs werevery ancient. This hill-side carving could not be seen from the thorpbeneath, which was called Netherton, because the bent looked westwarddown into the hollow of the hill abovesaid; but from nigher to Wulsteadthey were clear to see, and Ralph had often beheld them, but never sonigh: and that hill was called after them Bear Hill. At the top of itwas an earth-work of the ancient folk, which also was called BearCastle. And now Ralph rode over the hill's brow into it; for the wallshad been beaten down in places long and long ago.

  Now he rode up the wall, and at the topmost of it turned and lookedaback on the blue country which he had ridden through stretching many aleague below, and tried if he could pick out Upmeads from amongst thediverse wealth of the summer land: but Upmeads Water was hidden, and hecould see nothing to be sure of to tell him whereabouts the High Housestood; yet he deemed that he could make out the Debateable Wood and thehills behind it well enough. Then he turned his horse about, and hadthe down-country before him; long lines of hills to wit, one risingbehind the other like the waves of a somewhat quiet sea: no treesthereon, nor houses that he might see thence: nought but a green roadthat went waving up and down before him greener than the main face ofthe slopes.

  He looked at it all for a minute or two as the south-west wind wentpast his ears, and played a strange tune on the innumerable stems ofthe bents and the hard-stalked blossoms, to which the bees sangcounterpoint. Then the heart arose within him, and he drew the swordfrom the scabbard, and waved it about his head, and shook it toward thesouth, and cried out, "Now, welcome world, and be thou blessed from oneend to the other, from the ocean sea to the uttermost mountains!"

  A while he held the white steel in his fist, and then sheathed theblade, and rode down soberly over the turf bridge across the ancientfosse, and so came on to the green road made many ages before by anancient people, and so trotted south along fair and softly.

  Little is to be told of his journey through the downs: as he topped alow hill whereon were seven grave-mounds of the ancient folk in a row,he came on a shepherd lying amidst of his sheep: the man sprang to hisfeet when he heard horse-hoofs anigh him and saw the glint of steel,and he set his hand to a short spear which lay by him; but when he sawnought but Ralph, and heard how he gave him the sele of the day, henodded his head in a friendly way, though he said nought in salutation;for the loneliness of the downs made the speech slow within him.

  Again some two miles further on Ralph met a flock of sheep coming downa bent which the road climbed, and with them were three men, theirdrovers, and they drew nigh him as he was amidst of the sheep, so thathe could scarce see the way. Each of these three had a weapon; one apole-axe, another a long spear, and the third a flail jointed and boundwith iron, and an anlace hanging at his girdle. So they stood in theway and hailed him when the sheep were gone past; and the man with thespear asked him whither away. "I am turned toward Higham-on-the-Way,"quoth he; "and how many miles shall I ride ere I get there?"

  Said one of them: "Little less than twenty, lord." Now it was pastnoon two hours, and the day was hot; so whereas the faces of the menlooked kind and friendly, albeit somewhat rugged, he lighted down fromhis horse and sat down by the way-side, and drew his bottle of goodwine from out of his wallet, and asked the men if they were in haste."Nay, master," said he of the pole-axe, while all eyes turned to thebottle, "HE has gone by too long; and will neither meddle with us, normay we deal with him."

  "Well then," quoth Ralph, "there is time for bever. Have ye ought of acup, that we may drink to each other?"

  "Yea," said the carle with the anlace, "that have I." Therewith he drewfrom his pouch a ram's horn rimmed with silver, and held it up, andsaid as if he were speaking to it: "Now, Thirly, rejoice! for ye shallhave lord's wine poured into thy maw."

  Therewith he held it out toward Ralph, who laughed and filled it up,and filled for himself a little silver cup which he carried, and said:"To you, shepherds! Much wool and little cry!" And he drank withal.

  "And I," quoth the man with the horn, "call this health; Much cry andlittle wool!"

  "Well, well, how mean ye by that, Greasy Wat?" said the man with thespear, taking the horn as he spake; "that is but a poor wish for a lordthat drinketh out of our cup."

  Said Wat: "Why, neighbour, why! thy wit is none too hasty. The woolthat a knight sheareth is war and battle; that is wounding and death;but the cry is the talk and boasting and minstrelsy that goeth beforeall this. Which is the best wish to wish him? the wounds and thedeath, or the fore-rumour and stir thereof which hurteth no man?"

  Ralph laughed thereat, and was merry and blithe with them; but thespearman, who was an old man, said:

  "For all Wat sayeth, lord, and his japes, ye must not misdeem of usthat we shepherds of the Downs can do nought but run to ales andfeasts, and that we are but pot-valiant: maybe thou thyself mayst liveto see things go otherwise: and in that day may we have such as theefor captain. Now, fair lord, I drink to thy crown of valour, and thygood luck; and we thank thee for the wine and yet more for the blithefellowship."

  So Ralph filled up the ram's horn till Dame Katherine's good islandwine was well-nigh spent; and at last he said:

  "Now, my masters, I must to hor
se; but I pray you tell or we depart,what did ye mean when ye said that HE had gone past? Who is HE?"

  The merry faces of the men changed at his word, and they looked in eachother's faces, till at last the old spearman answered him:

  "Fair lord, these things we have little will to talk about: for we bepoor men with no master to fleece us, and no lord to help us: also webe folk unlearned and unlettered, and from our way of life, whereas wedwell in the wilderness, we seldom come within the doors of a church.But whereas we have drunk with thee, who seemest to be a man oflineage, and thou hast been blithe with us, we will tell thee that wehave seen one riding south along the Greenway, clad in a coat as greenas the way, with the leafless tree done on his breast. So nigh to himwe were that we heard his cry as he sped along, as ye may hear thelapwing whining; for he said: 'POINT AND EDGE, POINT AND EDGE! THE REDWATER AMIDST OF THE HILLS!' In my lifetime such a man hath, to myknowledge, been seen thrice before; and after each sight of himfollowed evil days and the death of men. Moreover this is the Eve ofSt. John, and we deem the token the worse therefor. Or how deemestthou?"

  Ralph stood silent awhile; for he was thinking of the big man whom hehad met at the churchyard gate, and all this tale seemed wonderful tohim. But at last he said:

  "I cannot tell what there is in it; herein am I no help to you. To-dayI am but little; though I may one day be great. Yet this may I do foryou; tomorrow will I let sing a mass in St. Mary's Church on yourbehoof. And hereafter, if I wax as my will is, and I come to be lordin these lands, I will look to it to do what a good lord should do forthe shepherds of the Downs, so that they may live well, and die in goodhope. So may the Mother of God help me at need!"

  Said the old shepherd: "Thou hast sworn an oath, and it is a goodoath, and well sworn. Now if thou dost as thou swearest, words can butlittle thanks, yet deeds may. Wherefore if ever thou comest backhither, and art in such need that a throng of men may help theetherein; then let light a great fire upon each corner of the topmostwall of Bear Castle, and call to mind this watch-word: 'SMITE ASIDE THEAXE, O BEAR-FATHER,' and then shalt thou see what shall betide thee forthy good-hap: farewell now, with the saints to aid!"

  Ralph bade them live well and hail, and mounted his horse and rode offdown the Greenway, and as he rode the shepherds waved their weapons tohim in token of good-will.