things?” said Ralph.  Quoth Roger:  “Ill hap and sorrow and the Hand of Fate and great Sorcery.”  “And dastards withal?” said Ralph.  “Even so,” said Roger, “yet mingled with valiant men.  Over long is the tale to tell as now, so low as the sun is; so now ride we on with little fear of foemen.  For look you, this wood, like the thickets about the Burg of the Four Friths, hath an evil name, and few folk ride it uncompelled; therefore it is the safer for us.  And yet I will say this to thee, that whereas awhile agone thou mightest have departed from me with little peril of aught save the stumbling on some of the riders of the Burg of the Four Friths, departing from me now will be a hard matter to thee; for the saints in Heaven only know whitherward thou shouldest come, if thou wert to guide thyself now.  This a rough word, but a true one, so help me God and Saint Michael!  What sayest thou; art thou content, or wilt thou cast hard words at me again?”

So it was that for all that had come and gone Ralph was light-hearted and happy; so he laughed and said:  “Content were I, even if I were not compelled thereto.  For my heart tells me of new things, and marvellous and joyous that I shall see ere long.”

“And thine heart lieth not,” said Roger, “for amidst of this wood is the house where we shall have guesting to-night, which will be to thee, belike, the door of life and many marvels.  For thence have folk sought ere now to the well at the world’s end.”

Ralph turned to him sharply and said:  “Many times in these few days have I heard that word.  Dost thou know the meaning thereof?  For as to me I know it not.”  Said Roger:  “Thou mayest well be as wise as I am thereon:  belike men seek to it for their much thriving, and oftenest find it not.  Yet have I heard that they be the likeliest with whom all women are in love.”

Ralph held his peace, but Roger noted that he reddened at the word.

Now they got on horseback again, for they had lighted down to breathe their beasts, and they rode on and on, and never was Roger at fault:  long was the way and perforce they rested at whiles, so that night fell upon them in the wood, but the moon rose withal.  So night being fairly come, they rested a good while, as it would be dawn before moonset.  Then they rode on again, till now the summer night grew old and waned, but the wood hid the beginnings of dawn.

At last they came out of the close wood suddenly into an open plain, and now, as the twilight of the dawn was passing into early day, they saw that wide grassy meadows and tilled fields lay before them, with a little river running through the plain; and amidst the meadows, on a green mound, was a white castle, strong, and well built, though not of the biggest.