It was a bright sunny day and the air very clear,
and as they rode Ralph said: "Quite clear is the sky, and yet
one cloud there is in the offing; but this is strange about it,
though I have been watching it this half hour, and looking to see
the rack come up from that quarter, yet it changes not at all.
I never saw the like of this cloud."
Said the minstrel: "Yea, fair sir, and of this cloud I must tell thee that it
will change no more till the bones of the earth are tumbled together.
Forsooth this is no cloud, but the topmost head of the mountain ridge
which men call the Wall of the World: and if ever thou come close up
to the said Wall, that shall fear thee, I deem, however fearless thou be."
"Is it nigh to Utterness?" said Ralph. "Nay," said the minstrel,
"not so nigh; for as huge as it seemeth thence."
Said Ralph: "Do folk tell that the Well at the World's End lieth beyond it?"
"Surely," said the minstrel.
Said Ralph, his face flushing: "Forsooth, that ancient lord
of Goldburg came through those mountains, and why not I?"
"Yea," said the minstrel, "why not?" And therewith he looked
uneasily on Ralph, who heeded his looks naught, for his mind
was set on high matters.
On then they rode, and when trees or some dip in the land hid
that mountain top from them, the way seemed long to Ralph.
Naught befell to tell of for some while; but at last,
when it was drawing towards evening again, they had been riding
through a thick pine-wood for a long while, and coming out of it
they beheld before them a plain country fairly well grassed,
but lo! on the field not far from the roadside a pavilion
pitched and a banner on the top thereof, but the banner hung
down about the staff, so that the bearing was not seen:
and about this pavilion, which was great and rich of fashion,
were many tents great and small, and there were horses tethered
in the field, and men moving about the gleam of armour.
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