Now on the second day of their riding this ugly waste,
as they came up over the brow of one of these stony ridges,
Ralph the far-sighted cried out suddenly: "Hold! for I see
a man weaponed."
"Where is he?" quoth Ursula, "and what is he about?"
Said Ralph: "He is up yonder on the swell of the next ridge,
and by seeming is asleep leaning against a rock."
Then he bent the Turk bow and set an arrow on the string and they
went on warily. When they were down at the foot of the ridge
Ralph hailed the man with a lusty cry, but gat no answer of him;
so they went on up the bent, till Ralph said: "Now I can see
his face under his helm, and it is dark and the eyes are hollow:
I will off horse and go up to him afoot, but do thou, beloved,
sit still in thy saddle."
But when he had come nigher, he turned and cried out to her:
"The man is dead, come anigh." So she went up to him and dismounted,
and they both together stood over the man, who was lying up against
a big stone like one at rest. How long he had lain there none knows
but God; for in the saltness of the dry desert the flesh had dried
on his bones without corrupting, and was as hardened leather.
He was in full armour of a strange and ancient fashion, and his sword
was girt to his side, neither was there any sign of a wound about him.
Under a crag anigh him they found his horse, dead and dry like to himself;
and a little way over the brow of the ridge another horse in like case;
and close by him a woman whose raiment had not utterly perished, nor her hair;
there were gold rings on her arms, and her shoes were done with gold:
she had a knife stuck in her breast, with her hand still clutching the
handle thereof; so that it seemed that she had herself given herself death.
Pages:
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533