the men that I saw
therein with a grief and longing that I could not give myself a reason
for, since I was to come back so soon. John Ball did not press me to
move forward, but held up his hand as if to bid me hearken. The folk
and guests there had already shaken themselves down since our
departure, and were gotten to be reasonably merry it seemed; for one of
the guests, he who had spoken of France before, had fallen to singing a
ballad of the war to a wild and melancholy tune. I remember the first
rhymes of it, which I heard as I turned away my head and we moved on
toward the church:

"On a fair field of France
We fought on a morning
So lovely as it lieth
Along by the water.
There was many a lord there
Mowed men in the medley,
'Midst the banners of the barons
And bold men of the knighthood,
And spearmen and sergeants
And shooters of the shaft."

CHAPTER IX

BETWIXT THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

We entered the church through the south porch under a round-arched door
carved very richly, and with a sculpture over the doorway and under the
arch, which, as far as I could see by the moonlight, figured St.
Michael and the Dragon. As I came into the rich gloom of the nave I
noticed for the first time that I had one of those white poppies in my
hand; I must have taken it out of the pot by the window as I passed out
of Will Green's house.

The nave was not very large, but it looked spacious too; it was
somewhat old, but well-built and handsome; the roof of curved wooden
rafters with great tie-beams going from wall to wall. There was no
light in it but that of the moon streaming through the windows, which
were by no means large, and were glazed with white fretwork, with here
and there a little figure in very deep rich colours. Two larger
windows near the east end of each aisle had just been made so that the
church grew lighter toward the east, and I could see all the work on
the great screen between the nave and chancel which glittered bright in
new paint and gilding: a candle glimmered in the loft above it, before
the huge rood that filled up the whole space between the loft and the
chancel arch. There was an altar at the east end of each aisle, the
one on the south side standing against the outside wall, the one on the
north against a traceried gaily-painted screen, for that aisle ran on
along the chancel. There were a fe