to the side
of the sea and made an end of the Glittering Plain on that side. Then he
turned about and went back by the way he had come, and up the country
betwixt the mountains and the plain northward, until he had been into
every house of folk in those parts and asked his question.

Then he went up into that fair country of the dales, and even anigh to
where dwelt the King's Daughter, and otherwhere in the land and
everywhere, quartering the realm of the Glittering Plain as the heron
quarters the flooded meadow when the waters draw aback into the river. So
that now all people knew him when he came, and they wondered at him; but
when he came to any house for the third or fourth time, they wearied of
him, and were glad when he departed.

Ever it was one of two answers that he had: either folk said to him,
"There is no such woman; this land is happy, and nought but happy people
dwell herein;" or else they told him of the woman who lived in sorrow,
and was ever looking on a book, that she might bring to her the man whom
she desired.

Whiles he wearied and longed for death, but would not die until there was
no corner of the land unsearched. Whiles he shook off weariness, and
went about his quest as a craftsman sets about his work in the morning.
Whiles it irked him to see the soft and merry folk of the land, who had
no skill to help him, and he longed for the house of his fathers and the
men of the spear and the plough; and thought, "Oh, if I might but get me
back, if it were but for an hour and to die there, to the meadows of the
Raven, and the acres beneath the mountains of Cleveland by the Sea. Then
at least should I learn some tale of what is or what hath been, howsoever
evil the tidings were, and not be bandied about by lies for ever."

CHAPTER XV: YET HALLBLITHE SPEAKETH WITH THE KING

So wore the days and the moons; and now were some six moons worn since
first he came to the Glittering Plain; and he was come to Wood-end again,
and heard and knew that the King was sitting once more in the door of his
pavilion to hearken to the words of his people, and he said to himself:
"I will speak yet again to this man, if indeed he be a man; yea, though
he turn me into stone."

And he went up toward the pavilion; and on the way it came into his mind
what the men of the kindred were doing that morning; and he had a vision
of them as it were, and saw them yoking the oxen to the plough, and
slowly going down the a