from which dangled four nooses, and above them all was a board whereon
was written in big letters THE DRY TREE. And at the foot of this gallows
were divers folk laughing and talking.

So Ralph understood at once that those four men whom he had
seen led away bound yesterday should be hanged thereon;
so he stayed a franklin who was passing by, and said to him,
"Sir, I am a stranger in the town, and I would know if justice
shall be done on the four woodmen to-day." "Nay," said the man,
"but to-morrow; they are even now before the judges."

Then said Roger in a surly voice, "Why art thou not there to look on?"
"Because," quoth the man, "there is little to see there, and not much
more to hearken. The thieves shall be speedily judged, and not questioned
with torments, so that they may be the lustier to feel what the hangman
shall work on them to-morrow; then forsooth the show shall be goodly.
But far better had it been if we had had in our hands the great witch
of these dastards, as we looked to have her; but now folk say that she
has not been brought within gates, and it is to be feared that she hath
slipped through our fingers once more."

Roger laughed, and said: "Simple are ye folk of the Burg and know nought
of her shifts. I tell thee it is not unlike that she is in the Burg even now,
and hath in hand to take out of your prison the four whom ye have caught."

The franklin laughed scornfully in his turn and said:
"If we be simple, thou art a fool merely: are we not stronger
and more than the Dry Tree? How should she not be taken?
How should she not be known if she were walking about these streets?
Have we no eyes, fool-carle?" And he laughed again,