"Now it was at this time that I first fell in with the Champions of the
Dry Tree; for they became our fellows and brothers in arms in the wildwood:
for they had not as yet builded their stronghold of the Scaur,
whereas thou and I shall be in two days time. Many a wild deed did
our folk in their company, and many that had been better undone.
Whiles indeed they went on journeys wherein we were not partakers,
as when they went to the North and harried the lands of the Abbot
of Higham, and rode as far even as over the Downs to Bear
Castle and fought a battle there with the Captain of Higham:
whereas we went never out of the Wood Perilous to the northward;
and lifted little save in the lands of our own proper foemen,
the friends of the king.
"Now I say not of the men of the Dry Tree that they were good
and peaceable men, nor would mercy hold their hands every
while that they were hard bestead and thrust into a corner.
Yet I say now and once for all that their fierceness was and is
but kindness and pity when set against the cruelty of the Burg
of the Four Friths; men who have no friend to love, no broken
foe to forgive, and can scarce be kind even to themselves:
though forsooth they be wise men and cautelous and well living
before the world, and wealthy and holy."
She stayed her speech a while, and her eyes glittered in her flushed face
and she set her teeth; and she was as one beside herself till Ralph kissed
her feet, and caressed her, and she went on again.
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