"
"Well," said Ralph, "then will they be too many for us;
so now will I ride ahead and see if we may have peace."
Said the Sage, "Yea, but be wary, for thou hast to do
with the guileful."
Then Ralph rode on alone till he was come within hail of those waylayers.
Then he thrust his sword into the sheath, and cried out:
"Will any of the warriors in the wood speak with me; for I am
the captain of the wayfarers?"
Then rode out from those men a very tall man, and two with him,
one on either side, and he threw back the sallet from his face, and said:
"Wayfarer, all we have weapons in our hands, and we so many that
thou and thine will be in regard of us as the pips to the apple.
Wherefore, yield ye!" Quoth Ralph: "Unto whom then shall I yield me?"
Said the other: "To the men of the King of Cheaping Knowe."
Then spake Ralph: "What will ye do with us when we are yolden?
Shall we not pay ransom and go our ways?" "Yea," said the tall man,
"and this is the ransom: that ye give up into my hands my dastard
who hath bewrayed me, and the woman who wendeth in your company."
Ralph laughed; for by this time he knew the voice
of the King, yea, and the face of him under his sallet.
So he cried back in answer, and in such wise as if the words
came rather from his luck than from his youth: "Ho, Sir King!
beware beware! lest thou tremble when thou seest the bare blade
of the Friend of the Well more than thou trembledst erst,
when the blade was hidden in the sheath before the throne
of thine hall.
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