service to the Port, and even so Blaise means it to be; therefore have I
lied to him on thy behalf, and bidden Clement also to lie (which forsooth
he may do better than I, since he wotteth not wholly whither thou art
minded), and I have said thou wouldst go with Clement no further than
Cheaping Knowe, which lieth close to the further side of these mountains,
and will be back again in somewhat more than a half-moon's wearing.
So now thou art warned hereof."

Ralph was moved by these words of Richard, and he spake:
"Forsooth, old friend, I am sorry to depart from thee;
yet though I shall presently be all alone amongst aliens,
yet now is manhood rising again in me. So for that cause
at least shall I be glad to be on the way; and as a token
that I am more whole than I was, I will now tell thee the tale
of my grief, if thou wilt hearken to it, which the other day
I might not tell thee."

"I will hearken it gladly," said Richard. And therewith they sat
down in a window, for they were within doors in the hostel, and Ralph
told all that had befallen him as plainly and shortly as he might;
and when he had done, Richard said:

"Thou has had much adventure in a short space, lord, and if thou mightest
now refrain thy longing for that which is gone, and set it on that which is
to come, thou mayest yet harden into a famous knight and a happy man."
Said Ralph: "Yea? now tell me all thy thought."

Said Richard: "My thought is that this lady who was slain,
was scarce wholly of the race of Adam; but that at the least
there was some blending in her of the blood of the fays.