"Come then, fair field-lord, now shalt thou have thy will of bed."
And he laughed therewith, and drew Ralph out of the throng and brought him
into the Abbey, and into a fair little chamber, on the wall whereof was
pictured St. Christopher, and St. Julian the lord and friend of wayfarers.
Then he brought Ralph the wine and spices, and gave him good-night,
and went his ways.

As Ralph put the raiment from off him he said to himself a long
day forsooth, so long that I should have thought no day could
have held all that has befallen me. So many strange things
have I seen, that surely my dreams shall be full of them;
for even now I seem to see them, though I waken.

So he lay down in his bed and slept, and dreamed that he was fishing
with an angle in a deep of Upmeads Water; and he caught many fish;
but after a while whatsoever he caught was but of gilded paper
stuffed with wool, and at last the water itself was gone, and he was
casting his angle on to a dry road. Therewith he awoke and saw
that day was dawning, and heard the minster clock strike three,
and heard the thrushes singing their first song in the Prior's garden.
Then he turned about and slept, and dreamed no more till he woke up
in the bright sunny morning.



CHAPTER 6

Ralph Goeth His Ways From the Abbey of St. Mary at Higham