"
"Yea," said Michael, "and dost thou know the Hatch?"
"As I know mine own fingers," said the Sage; "and even so I knew it
years and years before thou wert born." Therewith he told the new-comer
what he was, and the two men of Swevenham made joy of each other.
And Ralph was fain of them, and went into the chamber wherein sat Ursula,
and told her how all things were going, and she said that she would
be naught but glad to leave that town, which seemed to her like to
Utterbol over again.
CHAPTER 10
An Adventure on the Way to the Mountains
On the morrow Ralph got his men together betimes and rode out
a-gates, and was little afraid that any should meddle with him
within the town or anigh it, and even so it turned out.
But Michael rode in the company new clad, and with his head
and face all hidden in a wide sallet. As for Ralph and Ursula,
they were exceeding glad, and now that their heads were turned
to the last great mountains, it seemed to them that they
were verily going home, and they longed for the night,
that they might be alone together, and talk of all these matters
in each others' arms.
When they were out a-gates, they rode for two miles along the highway,
heedlessly enough by seeming, and then, as Michael bade, turned suddenly
into a deep and narrow lane, and forth on, as it led betwixt hazelled
banks and coppices of small wood, skirting the side of the hills,
so that it was late in the afternoon before they came into the Highway again,
which was the only road leading into the passes of the mountains.
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