So they rode on together and the man was blithe and merry:  and Ralph said to him:  “Since we are fellows for a good while, as I suppose, what shall I call thee?” Said he, “Morfinn the Minstrel I hight, to serve thee, fair lord.  Or some call me Morfinn the Unmanned.  Wilt thou not now ask me concerning that privy word that I had for thy ears?” “Yea,” said Ralph reddening, “hath it to do with a woman?” “Naught less,” said Morfinn.  “For I heard of thee asking many questions thereof in Goldburg, and I said to myself, now may I, who am bound for Utterness, do a good turn to this fair young lord, whose face bewrayeth his heart, and telleth all men that he is kind and bounteous; so that there is no doubt but he will reward me well at once for any help I may give him; and also it may be that he will do me a good turn hereafter in memory of this that I have done him.”

“Speak, wilt thou not,” said Ralph, “and tell me at once if thou hast seen this woman?  Be sure that I shall reward thee.”  “Nay, nay, fair sir,” said Morfinn; “a woman I have seen brought captive to the House of Utterbol.  See thou to it if it be she whom thou seekest.”

He smiled therewith, but now Ralph deemed him not so debonnaire as he had at first, for there was mocking in the smile; therefore he was wroth, but he refrained him and said:  “Sir Minstrel, I wot not why thou hast come with a tale in thy mouth and it will not out of it:  lo you, will this open the doors of speech to thee” (and he reached his hand out to him with two pieces of gold lying therein) “or shall this?” and therewith he half drew his sword from his sheath.

Said Morfinn, grinning again:  “Nay, I fear not the bare steel in thine hands, Knight; for thou hast not fool written plain in thy face; therefore thou wilt not slay thy way-leader, or even anger him over much.  And as to thy gold, the wages shall be paid at the journey’s end.  I was but seeking about in my mind how best to tell thee my tale so that thou mightest believe my word, which is true.  Thus it goes:  As I left Utterbol a month ago, I saw a damsel brought in captive there, and she seemed to me so exceeding fair that I looked hard on her, and asked one of the men-at-arms who is my friend concerning the market whereat she was cheapened; and he told me that she had not been bought, but taken out of the hands of the wild men from the further mountains.  Is that aught like to your story, lord?” “Yea,” said Ralph, knitting his brows in eagerness.  “Well,” said Morfinn, “but there are more fair women than one in the world, and belike this is not thy friend:  so now, as well as I may, I will tell thee what-like she was, and if thou knowest her not, thou mayst give me those two gold pieces and go back again.  She was tall rather than short, and slim rather than bigly made.  But many women are fashioned so:  and doubtless she was worn by travel, since she has at least come from over the mountains:  but that is little to