Then Ralph lighted down from his horse, and the woman rose
up to him, her white smock all bloody with the slain man.
Nevertheless was she as calm and stately before him, as if she
were sitting on the dais of a fair hall; so she said to him:
"Young warrior, thou hast done well and knightly, and I shall
look to it that thou have thy reward. And now I rede thee go
not to the Burg of the Four Friths; for this tale of thee shall
get about and they shall take thee, if it were out of the very
Frith-stool, and there for thee should be the scourge and the gibbet;
for they of that Burg be robbers and murderers merciless.
Yet well it were that thou ride hence presently; for those
be behind my tormentors whom thou hast slain, who will be
as an host to thee, and thou mayst not deal with them.
If thou follow my rede, thou wilt take the way that goeth hence
east away, and then shalt thou come to Hampton under Scaur,
where the folk are peaceable and friendly."
He looked at her hard as she spake, and noted that she spake but slowly,
and turned red and white and red again as she looked at him.
But whatever she did, and in spite of her poor attire, he deemed he had
never seen woman so fair. Her hair was dark red, but her eyes grey,
and light at whiles and yet at whiles deep; her lips betwixt thin
and full, but yet when she spoke or smiled clad with all enticements;
her chin round and so wrought as none was ever better wrought;
her body strong and well-knit; tall she was, with fair and large arms,
and limbs most goodly of fashion, of which but little was hidden,
since her coat was but thin and scanty.
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