And happy it was for me that I had neither wife,
nor chick, nor child, else had they done as they did with my brother,
whose wife was too fair for him, since he dwelt at Hampton; so that
they took her away from him to make sport for them of the Dry Tree,
who dwell in the Castle of the Scaur, who shall be thy masters
if thou goest thither.
"This is my tale, and thine, I say, I ask not; but I deem that thou shalt
do ill if thou go not to the Burg either with me or by thyself alone;
either as a guest, or as a good knight to take service in their host."
Now so it was that Ralph was wary; and this time he looked closely
at the carle, and found that he spake coldly for a man with so much
wrath in his heart; therefore he was in doubt about the thing;
moreover he called to mind the words of the lady whom he had
delivered, and her loveliness, and the kisses she had given him,
and he was loth to find her a liar; and he was loth also to think
that the maiden of Bourton had betaken her to so evil a dwelling.
So he said:
"Friend, I know not that I must needs be a partaker in the strife betwixt
Hampton and the Burg, or go either to one or the other of these strongholds.
Is there no other way out of this wood save by Hampton or the Burg?
or no other place anigh, where I may rest in peace awhile, and then go
on mine own errands?"
Said the Carle: "There is a thorp that lieth somewhat west
of the Burg, which is called Apthorp; but it is an open place,
not fenced, and is debateable ground, whiles held by them
of the Burg, whiles by the Dry Tree; and if thou tarry there,
and they of the Dry Tree take thee, soon is thine errand sped;
and if they of the Burg take thee, then shalt thou be led into the Burg
in worse case than thou wouldest be if thou go thereto uncompelled.
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