she is guileful enough
and loose enough for a worse man than thee."

"Lord," said Redhead, "even of her thou shalt say what pleaseth thee;
but no other man shall say of her what pleaseth me not. For all that
is come and gone she is true and valiant, and none may say that she is
not fair and sweet enough for a better man than me; and my great good
luck it is that, as I hope, she looketh no further for a better."

Ursula said: "Is it so, perchance, that now she is free and hath
naught to fear, she hath no need for guile?" "Hail to thee for thy
word, lady," quoth Redhead; and then he was silent, glooming somewhat
on Ralph.

But Ralph said: "Nay, my friend, I meant no harm, but I was wondering
what had befallen to bring you two so close together."

"It was fear and pain, and the helping of each other that wrought it,"
said Redhead. Said Ursula: "Good Captain, how was it that she escaped
the uttermost of evil at the tyrant's hands? since from all that I have
heard, it must needs be that he laid the blame on her (working for her
mistress) of my flight from Utterbol."

"Even so it was, lady," said Redhead; "but, as thou wottest belike, she
had got it spread abroad that she was cunning in sorcery, and that her
spell would not end when her life ended; nay, that he to whom her ghost
should bear ill-will, and more especially such an one as might compass
her death, should have but an ill time of it while he lived, which
should not be long. This tale, which, sooth to say, I myself helped to
spread, the Lord of Utterbol trowed in wholly, so cunningly was it
told; so that, to make a long story short, he feared her, and feared
her more dead than living. So that when he came home, and found thee
gone, lady, he did indeed deem that thy flight was of Agatha's
contrivance. And this the more because his nephew (he whom thou didst
beguile; I partly guess how) told him a made-up tale how all was done
by the spells of Agatha. For this youth was of all men, not even
saving his uncle, most full of malice; and he hated Agatha, and would
have had her suffer the uttermost of torments and he to be standing by
the while; howbeit his malice overshot itself, since his tale made her
even more of a witch than the lord deemed before."

"Yea," said Ursula, "and what hath befallen that evil young man,
Captain?" Said Redhead: "It is not known to many, lady; but two days
before the slaying of his uncle, I met him in a wood a little way from