"
Clement nodded yeasay, and Ralph spake again in a moment:
"And now will I begin my search in Goldburg by praying thee
to bring me to speech of merchants and others who may have seen
or heard tidings of my damsel."
He looked at Clement anxiously as he spoke; and Clement smiled,
for he said to himself that looking into Ralph's heart on this
matter was like looking into a chamber through an open window.
But he said: "Fear not but I will look to it; I am thy friend,
and not thy schoolmaster."
Therewith he departed from Ralph, and within three days he had brought
him to speech of all those who were like to know anything of the matter;
and one and all they said that they had seen no such woman, and that as
for the Lord of Utterbol, he had not been in Goldburg these three months.
But one of the merchants said: "Master Clement, if this young knight is boun
for Utterbol, he beareth his life in his hand, as thou knowest full well.
Now I rede thee bring him to our Queen, who is good and compassionate,
and if she may not help him otherwise, yet belike she may give him
in writing to show to that tyrant, which may stand him in stead:
for it does not do for any man to go against the will of our Lady and Queen;
who will surely pay him back for his ill-will some day or other."
Said Clement: "It is well thought of, and I will surely do as thou biddest."
So wore four days, and, that time during, Ralph was going to and fro
asking questions of folk that he came across, as people new come
to the city and hunters from the mountain-feet and the forests
of the plain, and mariners and such like, concerning the damsel
and the Lord of Utterbol; and Bull also went about seeking tidings:
but whereas Ralph asked downright what he wanted to know, Bull was wary,
and rather led men on to talk with him concerning those things
than asked them of them in such wise that they saw the question.
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