Ralph Hath Hope of Tidings Concerning the Well at the World's End
Now he goes to Clement, and tells him that he deems he has no need to
abide their departure from Goldburg to say farewell and follow his
quest further afield; since it is clear that in Goldburg he should have
no more tidings. Clement laughed and said: "Not so fast, Lord Ralph;
thou mayst yet hear a word or two." "What!" said Ralph, "hast thou
heard of something new?" Said Clement: "There has been a man here
seeking thee, who said that he wotted of a wise man who could tell thee
much concerning the Well at the World's End. And when I asked him of
the Damsel and the Lord of Utterbol, if he knew anything of her, he
said yea, but that he would keep it for thy privy ear. So I bade him
go and come again when thou shouldst be here. And I deem that he will
not tarry long."
Now they were sitting on a bench outside the hall of the hostel, with
the court between them and the gate; and Ralph said: "Tell me, didst
thou deem the man good or bad?" Said Clement: "He was hard to look
into: but at least he looked not a fierce or cruel man; nor indeed did
he seem false or sly, though I take him for one who hath lost his
manhood--but lo you! here he comes across the court."
So Ralph looked, and saw in sooth a man drawing nigh, who came straight
up to them and lowted to them, and then stood before them waiting for
their word: he was fat and somewhat short, white-faced and
pink-cheeked, with yellow hair long and curling, and with a little thin
red beard and blue eyes: altogether much unlike the fashion of men of
those parts. He was clad gaily in an orange-tawny coat laced with
silver, and broidered with colours.
Clement spake to him and said: "This is the young knight who is minded
to seek further east to wot if it be mere lies which he hath heard of
the Well at the World's End."
The new-comer lowted before them again, and said in a small voice, and
as one who was shy and somewhat afeared: "Lords, I can tell many a
tale concerning that Well, and them who have gone on the quest thereof.
And the first thing I have to tell is that the way thereto is through
Utterness, and that I can be a shower of the way and a leader to any
worthy knight who listeth to seek thither; and moreover, I know of a
sage who dwelleth not far from the town of Utterness, and who, if he
will, can put a seeker of the Well on the right road."
He looked askance on Ralph, whose face flushed and whose eyes glittered
at that word. But Clement said: "Yea, that seemeth fair to look to:
but hark ye! Is it not so that the way to Utterness is perilous?" Said
the man: "Thou mayst rather call it deadly, to any who is not
furnished with a let-pass from the Lord of Utterbol, as I am. But with
such a scroll a child or a woman may wend the road unharmed." "Where
hast thou the said let-pass?" said Clement. "Here," quoth the
new-comer; and therewith he drew a scroll from out of his pouch, and
opened it before them, and they read it together, and sure enough it
was a writing charging all men so let pass and aid Morfinn the Minstrel
(of whose aspect it told closely), under pain of falling into the
displeasure of Gandolf, Lord of Utterbol; and the date thereon was but
three months old.
Said Clement: "This is good, this let-pass: see thou, Ralph, the seal
of Utterbol, the Bear upon the Castle Wall. None would dare to
counterfeit this seal, save one who was weary of life, and longed for
torments."
Said Ralph, smiling: "Thou seest, Master Clement, that there must be a
parting betwixt us, and that this man's coming furthers it: but were he
or were he not, yet the parting had come. And wert thou not liefer
that it should come in a way to pleasure and aid me, than that thou
shouldst but leave me behind at Goldburg when thou departest: and I
with naught done toward the achieving my quest, but merely dragging my
deedless body about these streets; and at last, it may be, going on a
perilous journey without guiding or safe-conduct?"
"Yea, lad," said Clement, "I wotted well that thou wouldst take thine
own way, but fain had I been that it had been mine also." Then he
pondered a while and said afterwards: "I suppose that thou wilt take
thy servant Bull Shockhead with thee, for he is a stout man-at-arms,
and I deem him trusty, though he be a wild man. But one man is of
little avail to a traveller on a perilous road, so if thou wilt I will
give leave and license to a half score of our sergeants to follow thee
on the road; for, as thou wottest, I may easily wage others in their
place. Or else wouldst thou ask the Queen of Goldburg to give thee a
score of men-at-arms; she looked to me the other day as one who would
deny thee few of thine askings."
Ralph blushed red, and said: "Nay, I will not ask her this." Then he
was silent; the new-comer looked from one to the other, and said
nothing. At last Ralph spake: "Look you, Clement, my friend, I wot
well how thou wouldst make my goings safe, even if it were to thy loss,
and I thank thee for it: but I deem I shall do no better than putting
myself into this man's hands, since he has a let-pass for the lands of
him of Utterbol: and meseemeth from all that I have heard, that a half
score or a score, or for the matter of that an hundred men-at-arms
would not be enough to fight a way to Utterbol, and their gathering
together would draw folk upon them, who would not meddle with two men
journeying together, even if they had no let-pass of this mighty man."
Clement sighed and grunted, and then said: "Well, lord, maybe thou art
right."
"Yea," said the guide, "he is as right as may be: I have not spoken
before lest ye might have deemed me untrusty: but now I tell thee this,
that never should a small band of men unknown win through the lands of
the Lord of Utterbol, or the land debatable that lieth betwixt them and
Goldburg."
Ralph nodded friendly at him as he spake; but Clement looked on him
sternly; and the man beheld his scowling face innocently, and took no
heed of it.
Then said Ralph: "As to Bull Shockhead, I will speak to him anon; but
I will not take him with me; for indeed I fear lest his mountain-pride
grow up over greenly at whiles and entangle me in some thicket of peril
hard to win out of."
"Well," said Clement, "and when wilt thou depart?" "To-morrow," said
Ralph, "if my faring-fellow be ready for me by then." "I am all ready,"
said the man: "if thou wilt ride out by the east gate about two hours
before noon to-morrow, I will abide thee on a good horse with all that
we may need for the journey: and now I ask leave." "Thou hast it,"
said Clement.
So the man departed, and those two being left alone, Master Clement
said: "Well, I deemed that nothing else would come of it: and I fear
that thy gossip will be ill-content with me; for great is the peril."
"Yea," said Ralph, "and great the reward." Clement smiled and sighed,
and said: "Well, lad, even so hath a many thought before thee, wise
men as well as fools." Ralph looked at him and reddened, and departed
from him a little, and went walking in the cloister there to and fro,
and pondered these matters; and whatever he might do, still would that
trim figure be before his eyes which he had looked on so gladly
erewhile in the hostel of Bourton Abbas; and he said aloud to himself:
"Surely she needeth me, and draweth me to her whether I will or no." So
wore the day.