So when he had done, the merchant, who was a man sober of aspect and somewhat slow of speech, said:  “Sir, I believe surely that I have seen this damsel, but she is not with me now, nor have I sold her ever; but hither was she brought to be sold by a man of the mountain folk not very many days ago.  And the man’s name was Bull Nosy, or the longnosed man of the kindred of the Bull, for in such wise are named the men of that unhappy folk.  Now this was the cause why I might not sell her, that she was so proud and stout that men feared her, what she might do if they had her away.  And when some spake to see her body naked, she denied it utterly, saying that she would do a mischief to whomsoever tried it.  So I spake to him who owned her, and asked him if he thought it good to take her a while and quell her with such pains as would spoil her but little, and then bring her to market when she was meeker.  But he heeded my words little, and led her away, she riding on a horse and he going afoot beside her; for the mountain-men be no horsemen.”

Said Ralph:  “Dost thou know at all whither he will have led her?” Said the merchant:  “By my deeming, he will have gone first of all to the town of Whiteness, whither thy Fellowship will betake them ere long:  for he will be minded to meet there the Lord of Utterbol, who is for such like wares; and he will either give her to him as a gift, for which he will have a gift in return, or he will sell her to my lord at a price if he dare to chaffer with him.  At least so will he do if he be wise.  Now if the said lord hath her, it will be somewhat more than hard for thee to get her again, till he have altogether done with her; for money and goods are naught to him beside the doing of his will.  But there is this for thy comfort, that whereas she is so fair a woman, she will be well with my lord.  For I warrant me that she will not dare to be proud with him, as she was with the folk here.”

“Yea,” said Ralph, “and what is this lord of Utterbol that all folk, men and women, fear him so?” Said the merchant:  “Fair sir, thou must pardon me if I say no more of him.  Belike thou mayst fall in with him; and if thou dost, take heed that thou make not thyself great with him.”

So Ralph thanked the merchant and departed with Clement, of whom presently he asked if he knew aught of this lord of Utterbol.  Said Clement:  “God forbid that I should ever meet him, save where I were many and he few.  I have never seen him; but he is deemed by all men as the worst of the tyrants who vex these lands, and, maybe, the mightiest.”

So was Ralph sore at heart for the damsel, and anon he spake to Bull again of her, who deemed somewhat, that his kinsman had been minded at the first to sell her to the lord of Utterbol.  And Ralph thinks his game a hard one, yet deems that if he could but find out where the damsel was, he might deliver her, what by sleight, what by boldness.

CHAPTER 25