Yet forsooth it
was rather the carles than the queans who made all this lamentation.
At last the old man spake: "Fair sir, ye have brought us heavy tidings,
and we know not how to ask you to tell us more of the tale.
Yet if thou might'st but tell us how the Lady died?
Woe's me for the word!"
Said Ralph: "She was slain with the sword."
The old man drew himself up stiff and stark, the eyes of him
glittered under his white hair, and wrath changed his face,
and the other men-folk thronged them to hearken what more
should be said.
But the elder spake again: "Tell me who it was that slew her,
for surely shall I slay him, or die in the pain else."
Said Ralph: "Be content, thou mayst not slay him; he was a great
and mighty man, a baron who bore a golden sun on a blue field.
Thou mayst not slay him." "Yea," said the old man, "but I will,
or he me."
"Live in peace," said Ralph, "for I slew him then and there."
The old man held his peace a while, and then he said:
"I know the man, for he hath been here aforetime, and not so long ago.
But if he be dead, he hath a brother yet, an exceeding mighty man:
he will be coming here to vex us and minish us."
Said Ralph: "He will not stir from where he lies till Earth's
bones be broken, for my sword lay in his body yesterday."
The old man stood silent again, and the other carles
thronged him; but the woman stood aloof staring on Ralph.
Then the elder came up to Ralph and knelt before him
and kissed his feet; then he turned and called to him three
of the others who were of the stoutest and most stalwarth,
and he spake with them awhile, and then he came to Ralph again,
and again knelt before him and said: "Lord, ye have come to us,
and found us void of comfort, since we have lost our Lady.
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