He hearkened to them, and knit his brows and looked fiercely from
one to the other. But Ralph laughed aloud, and shook his finger
at him and refrained him, and his wrath ran off him and he laughed,
and shoved the victual into him doughtily, and sighed for pleasure
when he had made an end and drunk a draught of wine.
CHAPTER 22
Ralph Talks With Bull Shockhead
When they rode on again, Ralph rode beside Bull,
who was merry and blithe now he was full of meat and drink;
and he spake anon: "So thou art a king's son, master?
I deemed from the first that thou wert of lineage.
For as for these churls of chapmen, and the sworders whom
they wage, they know not the name of their mother's mother,
nor have heard one word of the beginner of their kindred;
and their deeds are like unto their kinlessness."
"And are thy deeds so good?" said Ralph. "Are they ill,"
said Bull, "when they are done against the foemen?" Said Ralph:
"And are all men your foemen who pass through these mountains?"
"All," said Bull, "but they be of the kindred or their known friends."
"Well, Bull," said Ralph, "I like thy deeds little, that thou
shouldest ravish men and women from their good life, and sell
them for a price into toil and weariness and stripes."
Said Bull: "How much worse do we than the chapmen by his debtor,
and the lord of the manor by his villein?" Said Ralph:
"Far worse, if ye did but know it, poor men!" Quoth Bull:
"But I neither know it, nor can know it, nay, not when thou
sayest it; for it is not so.
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