therein with a grief and longing that I could not give myself a reason
for, since I was to come back so soon. John Ball did not press me to
move forward, but held up his hand as if to bid me hearken. The folk
and guests there had already shaken themselves down since our
departure, and were gotten to be reasonably merry it seemed; for one
of the guests, he who had spoken of France before, had fallen to
singing a ballad of the war to a wild and melancholy tune. I remember
the first rhymes of it, which I heard as I turned away my head and we
moved on toward the church:

"On a fair field of France
We fought on a morning
So lovely as it lieth
Along by the water.
There was many a lord there
Mowed men in the medley,
'Midst the banners of the barons
And bold men of the knighthood,
And spearmen and sergeants
And shooters of the shaft."



CHAPTER IX

BETWIXT THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

We entered the church through the south porch under a round-arched
door carved very richly, and with a sculpture over the doorway and
under the arch, which, as far as I could see by the moonlight, figured