“Now, my masters, I must to horse; but I pray you tell or we depart, what did ye mean when ye said that he had gone past?  Who is he?”

The merry faces of the men changed at his word, and they looked in each other’s faces, till at last the old spearman answered him: 

“Fair lord, these things we have little will to talk about:  for we be poor men with no master to fleece us, and no lord to help us:  also we be folk unlearned and unlettered, and from our way of life, whereas we dwell in the wilderness, we seldom come within the doors of a church.  But whereas we have drunk with thee, who seemest to be a man of lineage, and thou hast been blithe with us, we will tell thee that we have seen one riding south along the Greenway, clad in a coat as green as the way, with the leafless tree done on his breast.  So nigh to him we were that we heard his cry as he sped along, as ye may hear the lapwing whining; for he said:  ‘Point and edge, point and edge!  The red water amidst of the hills!’ In my lifetime such a man hath, to my knowledge, been seen thrice before; and after each sight of him followed evil days and the death of men.  Moreover this is the Eve of St. John, and we deem the token the worse therefor.  Or how deemest thou?”

Ralph stood silent awhile; for he was thinking of the big man whom he had met at the churchyard gate, and all this tale seemed wonderful to him.  But at last he said: 

“I cannot tell what there is in it; herein am I no help to you.  To-day I am but little; though I may one day be great.  Yet this may I do for you; tomorrow will I let sing a mass in St. Mary’s Church on your behoof.  And hereafter, if I wax as my will is, and I come to be lord in these lands, I will look to it to do what a good lord should do for the shepherds of the Downs, so that they may live well, and die in good hope.  So may the Mother of God help me at need!”

Said the old shepherd:  “Thou hast sworn an oath, and it is a good oath, and well sworn.  Now if thou dost as thou swearest, words can but little thanks, yet deeds may.  Wherefore if ever thou comest back hither, and art in such need that a throng of men may help thee therein; then let light a great fire upon each corner of the topmost wall of Bear Castle, and call to mind this watch-word:  ‘Smite aside the axe, O bear-father,’ and then shalt thou see what shall betide thee for thy good-hap:  farewell now, with the saints to aid!”

Ralph bade them live well and hail, and mounted his horse and rode off down the Greenway, and as he rode the shepherds waved their weapons to him in token of good-will.

CHAPTER 5

Ralph Cometh to Higham-on-the-Way

Nought more befell Ralph to tell of till he came to the end of the Downs and saw Higham lying below him overlooked by a white castle on a knoll, and with a river lapping it about and winding on through its fair green meadows even as Clement had told.  From amidst its houses rose up three towers of churches above their leaden roofs, and high above all, long and great, the Abbey Church; and now was the low sun glittering on its gilded vanes and the wings of the angels high upon the battlements.