So then they gat to horse again and rode into the thorp, where men and women stood about to behold them, and made them humble reverence as they passed by.  So rode they to the bailly of the Castle; and if that stronghold looked terrible from the ridge above, tenfold more terrible of aspect it was when the upper parts were hidden by the grey rocks, and they so huge and beetling, and though the sun was bright about them, and they in the midst of their friends, yet even Ralph felt somewhat of dread creep over him:  yet he smiled cheerfully as Ursula turned an anxious face on him.  They alighted from their horses in the bailly, for over steep for horse-hoofs was the walled way upward; and as they began to mount, even the merry Champions hushed their holiday clamour for awe of the huge stronghold, and Ralph took Ursula by the hand, and she sidled up to him, and said softly:  “Yea, it was here they drave me up, those women, thrusting and smiting me; and some would have stripped off my raiment, but one who seemed the wisest, said, ’Nay, leave her till she come before the ancient Lady, for her gear may be a token of whence she is, and whither, if she be come as a spy.’  So I escaped them for that moment.  And now I wonder what we shall find in the hall when we come in thither.  It is somewhat like to me, as when one gets up from bed in the dead night, when all is quiet and the moon is shining, and goes out of the chamber into the hall, and coming back, almost dreads to see some horror lying in one’s place amid the familiar bedclothes.”

And she grew paler as she spake.  Then Ralph comforted her and trimmed his countenance to a look of mirth, but inwardly he was ill at ease.

So up they went and up, till they came to a level place whereon was built the chief hall and its chambers:  there they stood awhile to breathe them before the door, which was rather low than great; and Ursula clung to Ralph and trembled, but Ralph spake in her ear:  “Take heart, my sweet, or these men, and Roger in especial, will think the worse of thee; and thou a Friend of the Well.  What! here is naught to hurt thee! this is naught beside the perils of the desert, and the slaves and the evil lord of Utterbol.”  “Yea,” she said, “but meseemeth I loved thee not so sore as now I do.  O friend, I am become a weak woman and unvaliant, and there is naught in me but love of thee, and love of life because of thee; nor dost thou know altogether what befell me in that hall.”

But Ralph turned about and cried out in a loud, cheerful voice:  “Let us enter, friends! and lo you, I will show the Champions of the Dry Tree the way into their own hall and high place.”  Therewith he thrust the door open, for it was not locked, and strode into the hall, still leading Ursula by the hand, and all the company followed him, the clash of their armour resounding through the huge building.  Though it was long, it was not so much that it was long as that it was broad, and exceeding high, so that in the dusk of it the great vault of the roof was dim and misty.  There was no man therein, no halling on its walls, no benches nor boards, naught but the great standing table of stone on the dais, and the stone high-seat amidst of it:  and the place did verily seem like the house and hall of a people that had died out in one hour because of their evil deeds.