"
"What?" said Ralph, "are the new colt's paces to be proven?
And how if he fail?"
Quoth Otter, laughing: "Fail not, I rede thee, or my lord's
love for thee shall be something less than nothing."
"And then will he slay me?" said Ralph. Said Otter:
"Nay I deem not, at least not at first: he will have thee home
to Utterbol, to make the most of his bad bargain, and there shalt
thou be a mere serving-thrall, either in the house or the field:
where thou shalt be well-fed (save in times of scarcity),
and belike well beaten withal." Said Ralph, somewhat downcast:
"Yea, I am a thrall, who was once a knight. But how if thou
fail before me?" Otter laughed again: "That is another matter;
whatever I do my Lord will not lose me if he can help it;
but as for the others who shall stand before thy valiancy,
there will be some who will curse the day whereon my lord bought thee,
if thou turnest out a good spear, as ye call it in your lands.
Howsoever, that is not thy business; and I bid thee fear naught;
for thou seemest to be a mettle lad."
So they talked, and that day wore like the others,
but the haze did not clear off, and the sun went down red.
In the evening David talked with Ralph in his tent, and said:
"If to-morrow be clear, knight, thou shalt see a new sight
when thou comest out from the canvas." Said Ralph: "I suppose
thy meaning is that we shall see the mountains from hence?"
"Yea," said David; "so hold up thine heart when that sight
first cometh before thine eyes.
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