e; but in that high and clear cold air, his
carcase, whistled by the wind, had dried rather than rotted, and his
face was clear to be seen with its great hooked nose and long black
hair: and his skull was cloven.

Now Bull had done his wailing for his kinsman, and he seemed to wake up
as from a dream, and looked about the ring of men and spake: "Here is
a great to do, my masters! What will ye with me? Have ye heard, or is
it your custom, that when a man cometh on the dead corpse of his
brother, his own mother's son, he turneth it over with his foot, as if
it were the carcase of a dog, and so goeth on his way? This I ask,
that albeit I be but a war-taken thrall, I be suffered to lay my
brother in earth and heap a howe over him in these mountains."

They all murmured a yeasay to this save Ralph. He had been sobered by
his fall, and was standing up now betwixt Clement and the captain, who
had unbound his hands, now that the others had come up; he hung his
head, and was ashamed of his fury by seeming. But when Bull had
spoken, and the others had answered, Ralph said to Bull, wrathfully
still, but like a man in his wits: "Why didst thou say that thou
wouldest slay her?" "Hast thou found her?" said Bull. "Nay," quoth
Ralph, sullenly. "Well, then," said Bull, "when thou dost find her, we
will speak of it." Said Ralph: "Why didst thou say that she hath slain
him?" "I was put out of my wits by the sight of him dead," said Bull;
"But now I say mayhappen she hath slain him."

"And mayhappen not," said Clement; "look here to the cleaving of his
skull right through this iron headpiece, which he will have bought at
Cheaping Knowe (for I have seen suchlike in the armourers' booth
there): it must have taken a strong man to do this."

"Yea," quoth the captain, "and a big sword to boot: this is the stroke
of a strong man wielding a good weapon."

Said Bull: "Well, and will my master bid me forego vengeance for my
brother's slaying, or that I bear him to purse? Then let him slay me
now, for I am his thrall." Said Ralph: "Thou shalt do as thou wilt
herein, and I also will do as I will. For if she slew him, the taking
of her captive should be set against the slaying." "That is but
right," said the captain; "but Sir Ralph, I bid thee take the word of
an old man-at-arms for it, that she slew him not; neither she, nor any
other woman."

Said Clement: "Well, let all this be. But tell me, lord Ralph, what
thou wouldst do,