when thou deemest it better to be slain with bitter torments (as thou
shouldest be if thou slewest thy master) than to be sold to any master
save one exceeding good?"

Bull held his peace hereat, but presently he said:
"Well, be our craft good or evil, it is gainful; and whiles there
is prey taken right good, which, for my part, I would not sell,
once I had my hand thereon." "Yea, women?" said Ralph.
"Even so," said Bull, "such an one was taken by my kinsman Bull
Nosy but a little while agone, whom he took down to the market at
Cheaping Knowe, as I had not done if I had once my arms about her.
For she was as fair as a flower; and yet so well built, that she
could bear as much as a strong man in some ways; and, saith Nosy,
when she was taken, there was no weeping or screeching in her,
but patience rather and quietness, and intent to bear all and
live....Master, may I ask thee a question?" "Ask on," said Ralph.
Said Bull: "The pair of beads about thy neck, whence came they?"
"They were the gift of a dear friend," said Ralph. "A woman?"
quoth Bull. "Yea," said Ralph.

"Now is this strange," said Bull, "and I wot not what it may betoken,
but this same woman had about her neck a pair of beads as like to thine
as if they had been the very same: did this woman give thee the beads?
For I will say this of thee, master, that thou art well nigh as likely
a man as she is a woman."

Ralph sighed, for this talk of the woman and the beads brought all
the story into his mind, so that it was as if he saw it adoing again:
the Lady of the Wildwood led along to death before he delivered her,
and their flight together from the Water of the Oak, and that murder