that we shepherds of the Downs can do nought but run to ales and feasts,
and that we are but pot-valiant: maybe thou thyself mayst live to see things
go otherwise: and in that day may we have such as thee for captain.
Now, fair lord, I drink to thy crown of valour, and thy good luck;
and we thank thee for the wine and yet more for the blithe fellowship."

So Ralph filled up the ram's horn till Dame Katherine's good island
wine was well-nigh spent; and at last he said:

"Now, my masters, I must to horse; but I pray you tell or
we depart, what did ye mean when ye said that HE had gone past?
Who is HE?"

The merry faces of the men changed at his word, and they looked
in each other's faces, till at last the old spearman answered him:

"Fair lord, these things we have little will to talk about:
for we be poor men with no master to fleece us, and no lord to help us:
also we be folk unlearned and unlettered, and from our way of life,
whereas we dwell in the wilderness, we seldom come within the doors
of a church. But whereas we have drunk with thee, who seemest
to be a man of lineage, and thou hast been blithe with us, we will
tell thee that we have seen one riding south along the Greenway,
clad in a coat as green as the way, with the leafless tree done
on his breast. So nigh to him we were that we heard his cry
as he sped along, as ye may hear the lapwing whining; for he said:
'POINT AND EDGE, POINT AND EDGE! THE RED WATER AMIDST OF THE HILLS!'
In my lifetime such a man hath, to my knowledge, been seen thrice before;
and after each sight of him followed evil days and the death of men.
Moreover this is the Eve of St. John, and we deem the token