rom Whitwall, we three,
and turn our faces toward Upmeads?"

Said Richard: "Wilt thou not tarry a day or two, and talk with thine
own mother's son and tell him of thine haps?" "Yea," said Ralph, "and
so would I, were it not that my father's trouble and my mother's grief
draw me away."

"O tarry not," said Ursula; "nay, not for the passing of the night; but
make this hour the sunrise, and begone by the clear of the moon. For
lo! how he shineth through the window!"

Then she turned to Richard, and said: "O fosterer of my love, knowest
thou not that as now he speaketh as a Friend of the Well, and wotteth
more of far-off tidings than even this wise man of many years?"

Said Ralph: "She sayeth sooth, O Richard. Or how were it if the torch
were even now drawing nigh to the High House of Upmeads: yea, or if
the very House were shining as a dreary candle of the meadows, and
reddening the waters of the ford! What do we here?"

Therewith he thrust the board from him, and arose and went to his
harness, and fell to arming him, and he spake to Richard: "Now shall
thine authority open to us the gates of the good town, though the night
be growing old; we shall go our ways, dear friend, and mayhappen we
shall meet again, and mayhappen not: and thou shalt tell my brother
Blaise who wotteth not of my coming hither, how things have gone with
me, and how need hath drawn me hence. And bid him come see me at
Upmeads, and to ride with a good band of proper men, for eschewing the
dangers of the road."

Then spake Richard: "I shall tell Lord Blaise neither more nor less
than thou mayst tell him thyself: for think it not that thou shalt go
without me. As for Blaise, he may well spare me; for he is become a
chief and Lord of the Porte; and the Porte hath now right good
men-at-arms, and captains withal younger and defter than I be. But now
suffer me to send a swain for my horse and arms, and another to the
captain of the watch at West-gate Bar that he be ready to open to me
and three of my friends, and to send me a let-pass for the occasion.
So shall we go forth ere it be known that the brother of the Lord of
the Porte is abiding at the Lamb. For verily I see that the Lady hath
spoken truth; and it is like that she is forseeing, even as thou hast
grown to be. And now I bethink me I might lightly get me a score of
men to ride with us, whereas we may meet men worse than ourselves on
the way."

Said Ralph: "All good go with t