called the Fleece, which was a big house, and goodly enough.

The next morning Clement and the other chapmen went up into the Castle,
bearing with them gifts out of their wares for the lord, and Clement
bade Ralph keep close till he came back, and especially to keep his
war-caught thrall, Bull Shockhead, safe at home, lest he be taken from him,
and to clothe him in the guise of the chapman lads, and to dock his hair;
and even so Ralph did, though Bull were loath thereto.

About noon the chapmen came back again well pleased; and Clement
gave Ralph a parchment from the lord, which bade all men help
and let pass Ralph of Upmeads, as a sergeant of the chapmen's guard,
and said withal that now he was free to go about the town if he listed,
so that he were back at the hostel of the Fleece by nightfall.

So Ralph went in company with some of the sergeants and others, and looked
at this and that about the town without hindrance, save that the guard
would not suffer them to pass further than the bailey of the Castle.
And for the said bailey, forsooth, they had but little stomach; for they
saw thence, on the slopes of the Castle-hill, tokens of the cruel justice
of the said lord; for there were men and women there, yea, and babes also,
hanging on gibbets and thrust through with sharp pales, and when they asked
of folk why these had suffered, they but looked at them as if astonished,
and passed on without a word.

So they went thence, and found the master-church, and deemed
it not much fairer than it was great; and it was nowise great,
albeit it was strange and uncouth of fashion.

Then they came to great gardens within the town, and they were