"
"Where is thine own land?" said the King, stretching out his legs and
lying back in his chair. "West-away, lord, many a mile," said Ralph.
"Yea," quoth the King, "and how far didst thou go beyond the mountains?
As far as Utterbol?" Said Ralph: "Yet further, but not to Utterbol."
"Hah!" said the King, "who goeth beyond Utterbol must have a great errand;
what was thine?"
Ralph thought for a moment, and deemed it best to say as little as he might
concerning Ursula; so he answered, and his voice grew loud and bold:
"I was minded to drink a draught of the WELL at the WORLD'S END, and even
so I did." As he spake, he drew himself up, and his brows were knit a little,
but his eyes sparkled from under them, and his cheeks were bright and rosy.
He half drew the sword from the scabbard, and sent it back rattling,
so that the sound of it went about the hall; he upreared his head and
looked around him on this and that one of the warriors of the aliens,
and he sniffed the air into his nostrils as he stood alone amongst them,
and set his foot down hard on the floor of the King's hall, and his armour
rattled upon him.
But the King sat bolt upright in his chair and stared Ralph's face;
and the warriors and lords and merchants fell back from Ralph and stood
in an ordered rank on either side of him and bent their heads before him.
None spoke till the King said in a hoarse voice, but lowly and wheedling:
"Tell us, fair Sir, what is it that we can do to pleasure thee?"
"King," said Ralph, "I am not here to take gifts but to give them rather:
yet since thou biddest me I will crave somewhat of thee, that thou mayst
be the more content: and moreover the giving shall cost thee nothing:
I crave of thee to give me life and limb and freedom for the poor
folk whom I saw led down the hall by thy tipstaves, even now.
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