not their true
lords, who lay heavy burdens on them and torment them even to the
destroying of their lives: and lastly I will tell thee that I was one
of those poor people, though not so much a sheep as the more part of
them, therefore have these tyrants robbed me of my croft, and set
another man in my house; and me they would have slain had I not fled to
the wood that it might cover me. And happy it was for me that I had
neither wife, nor chick, nor child, else had they done as they did with
my brother, whose wife was too fair for him, since he dwelt at Hampton;
so that they took her away from him to make sport for them of the Dry
Tree, who dwell in the Castle of the Scaur, who shall be thy masters if
thou goest thither.

"This is my tale, and thine, I say, I ask not; but I deem that thou
shalt do ill if thou go not to the Burg either with me or by thyself
alone; either as a guest, or as a good knight to take service in their
host."

Now so it was that Ralph was wary; and this time he looked closely at
the carle, and found that he spake coldly for a man with so much wrath
in his heart; therefore he was in doubt about the thing; moreover he
called to mind the words of the lady whom he had delivered, and her
loveliness, and the kisses she had given him, and he was loth to find
her a liar; and he was loth also to think that the maiden of Bourton
had betaken her to so evil a dwelling. So he said:

"Friend, I know not that I must needs be a partaker in the strife
betwixt Hampton and the Burg, or go either to one or the other of these
strongholds. Is there no other way out of this wood save by Hampton or
the Burg? or no other place anigh, where I may rest in peace awhile,
and then go on mine own errands?"

Said the Carle: "There is a thorp that lieth somewhat west of the
Burg, which is called Apthorp; but it is an open place, not fenced, and
is debateable ground, whiles held by them of the Burg, whiles by the
Dry Tree; and if thou tarry there, and they of the Dry Tree take thee,
soon is thine errand sped; and if they of the Burg take thee, then
shalt thou be led into the Burg in worse case than thou wouldest be if
thou go thereto uncompelled. What sayest thou, therefore? Who shall
hurt thee in the Burg, a town which is under good and strong law, if
thou be a true man, as thou seemest to be? And if thou art seeking
adventures, as may well be, thou shalt soon find them there ready to
hand. I rede thee come with