even though at whiles Ralph answered him little.

As they rode, the land began to get less fertile and less,
till at last there was but tillage here and there in patches:
of houses there were but few, and the rest was but dark heathland
and bog, with scraggy woods scattered about the country-side.

Naught happened to tell of, save that once in the afternoon,
as they were riding up to the skirts of one of the woods aforesaid,
weaponed men came forth from it and drew up across the way;
they were a dozen in all, and four were horsed. Ralph set his hand
to his sword, but the minstrel cried out, "Nay, no weapons, no weapons!
Pull out thy let-pass again and show it in thine hand, and then
let us on."

So saying he drew a white kerchief from his hand, and tied it to
the end of his riding staff, and so rode trembling by Ralph's side:
therewith they rode on together towards those men, whom as they drew
nearer they heard laughing and jeering at them, though in a tongue
that Ralph knew not.

They came so close at last that the waylayers could see the parchment clearly,
with the seal thereon, and then they made obeisance to it, as though it
were the relic of a saint, and drew off quietly into the wood one by one.
These were big men, and savage-looking, and their armour was utterly uncouth.

The minstrel was loud in his mirth when they were well past these men;
but Ralph rode on silently, and was somewhat soberly.

"Fair sir," quoth the minstrel, "I would wager that I know