"
One or two grinned as he spake, but some bent their brows at him,
yet scarce in earnest, and the talk thereover dropped, nor did Ralph ask any
more questions; for he was somewhat down-hearted, calling to mind the frank
and free maidens of Upmead, and their friendly words and hearty kisses.
And him seemed the world was worse than he had looked to find it.
Howsoever, the oldest and soberest of the guests,
seeing that he was a stranger and of noble aspect,
came unto him and sat by him, and fell to telling him tales
of the wars of the men of the Burg with the Wheat-wearers;
and how in time past, when the town was but little fenced,
the Wheat-wearers had stormed their gates and taken the city,
and had made a great slaughter; but yet had spared many of
the fighting-men, although they had abided there as the masters
of them, and held them enthralled for three generations of men:
after which time the sons' sons of the old Burg-dwellers
having grown very many again, and divers of them being
trusted in sundry matters by the conquerors, who oppressed
them but little, rose up against them as occasion served,
in the winter season and the Yule feast, and slew their masters,
save for a few who were hidden away.
"And thereafter," quoth he, "did we make the Burg strong and hard to win,
as ye see it to-day; and we took for our captain the Forest Lord,
who ere-while had dwelt in the clearings of the wildwood, and he wedded
the Fair Lady who was the son's daughter of him who had been our lord ere
the Wheat-wearers overcame us; and we grew safe and free and mighty again.
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