But the first night that they lay there, though it was moonless and
somewhat cloudy, they saw no glare of the distant earth-fires which they had
looked for; and when on the morrow they questioned the Sage thereof, he said:
"The Earth-fires ceased about the end of last year, as I have heard tell.
But sooth it is that the foreboding of the Giant's Candle was not for naught.
For there hath verily been a change of masters at Utterbol."
"Yea," said Ralph, "for better or worse?"
Said the Sage: "It could scarce have been for worse;
but if rumour runneth right it is much for the better.
Hearken how I learned thereof. One fair even of late March,
a little before I set off hither, as I was sitting before
the door of my house, I saw the glint of steel through the wood,
and presently rode up a sort of knights and men-at-arms, about
a score; and at the head of them a man on a big red-roan horse,
with his surcoat blazoned with a white bull on a green field:
he was a man black-haired, but blue-eyed; not very big,
but well knit and strong, and looked both doughty
and knightly; and he wore a gold coronet about his basnet:
so not knowing his blazonry, I wondered who it was that durst
be so bold as to ride in the lands of the Lord of Utterbol.
Now he rode up to me and craved a drink of milk,
for he had seen my goats; so I milked two goats for him,
and brought whey for the others, whereas I had no more goats
in milk at that season.
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