eming of
her."

So the carle went up to Ursula, and peered closely into her face, and
took her hand and looked on it, and knelt down and took her foot out of
the stirrup, and kissed it, and then came back to Ralph, and said:
"Fair Sir, I wot not but it may be her sister; for yonder old wise man
I have seen here erst with our heavenly Lady. But though this fair
woman may be her sister, it is not she. So tell me what is become of
her, for it is long since we have seen her; and what thou tellest us,
that same shall we trow, even as if thou wert her angel. For I spake
with thee, it is nigh two years agone, when thou wert abiding the
coming of our Lady in the castle yonder But now I see of thee that thou
art brighter-faced, and mightier of aspect than aforetime, and it is in
my mind that the Lady of Abundance must have loved thee and holpen
thee, and blessed thee with some great blessing."

Said Ralph: "Old man, canst thou feel sorrow, and canst thou bear it?"
The carle shook his head. "I wot not," said he, "I fear thy words."
Said Ralph: "It were naught to say less than the truth; and this is
the very truth, that thou shalt never see thy Lady any more. I was the
last living man that ever saw her alive."

Then he spake in a loud voice and said: "Lament, ye people! for the
Lady of Abundance is dead; yet sure I am that she sendeth this message
to you, Live in peace, and love ye the works of the earth."

But when they heard him, the old man covered up his face with the folds
of his gown, and all that folk brake forth into weeping, and crying
out: "Woe for us! the Lady of Abundance is dead!" and some of the
younger men cast themselves down on to the earth, and wallowed, weeping
and wailing: and there was no man there that seemed as if he knew which
way to turn, or what to do; and their faces were foolish with sorrow.
Yet forsooth it was rather the carles than the queans who made all this
lamentation.

At last the old man spake: "Fair sir, ye have brought us heavy
tidings, and we know not how to ask you to tell us more of the tale.
Yet if thou might'st but tell us how the Lady died? Woe's me for the
word!"

Said Ralph: "She was slain with the sword."

The old man drew himself up stiff and stark, the eyes of him glittered
under his white hair, and wrath changed his face, and the other
men-folk thronged them to hearken what more should be said.

But the elder spake again: "Tell me who it was that slew her, for