But as to me, I deemed it naught, and was sorry that my white-bosomed,
sweet-breathed friend should walk away from me thus into the clouds."

"What came of it?" said Ralph, "did they come back, or any of them?"
"I wot not," said Richard, "for I was weary of Swevenham after that,
so I girt myself to a sword and laid a spear upon my shoulder
and went my ways to the Castle of the Waste March, sixty miles
from Swevenham town, and the Baron took me in and made me his man:
and almost as little profit were in my telling thee again of my
deeds there, as there was in my doing them: but the grey tower
of Swevenham I have never seen again till this hour."

Said Ralph: "Now then it behoveth me to go to Swevenham straightway:
wilt thou come with me? it seemeth to be but some four miles hence."

Richard held his peace and knit his brows as if pondering
the matter, and Ralph abided till he spake: so he said:
"Foster-son, so to call thee, thou knowest the manner
of up-country carles, that tales flow forth from them
the better if they come without over much digging
and hoeing of the ground; that is, without questioning;
so meseems better it will be if I go to Swevenham alone,
and better if I be asked to go, than if I go of myself.
Now to-morrow is Saturday, and high market in Whitwall;
and I am not so old but that it is likeliest that there will
be some of my fellows alive and on their legs in Swevenham:
and if such there be, there will be one at the least in
the market to-morrow, and I will be there to find him out:
and then it will go hard if he bring me not to Swevenham as a
well-beloved guest; and when I am there, and telling my tidings,