If there be a fairer than her, I wot not; but none so fair have mine
eyes looked on. Tell me whose daughter she is, and of what lineage?"
And therewith he took her hand and kissed her.
But Ursula said: "I am come of no earl or baron.
I am a yeoman's daughter, and both my father and my mother are dead,
and I have no nigh kin save one brother who loveth me not,
and would heed it little if he never saw my face again.
Now I tell thee this: that if my lord biddeth me go from him,
I will depart; but for the bidding of none else will I leave him."
King Peter laughed and said: "Never will I bid thee depart." Then he took
her hand and said: "Sweetling, fair daughter, what is thy name?"
"Ursula," she said. Said he: "Ursula, thy palms are harder than be
the hands of the dainty dames of the cities, but there is no churls'
blood in thee meseemeth. What is thy kindred of the yeoman?" She said:
"We be come of the Geirings of old time: it may be that the spear
is broken, and the banner torn; but we forget not our forefathers,
though we labour afield, and the barons and the earls call us churls.
It is told amongst us that that word is but another way of saying earl
and that it meaneth a man."
Then spoke Ralph: "Father and mother both, I may well thank
thee and bless thee that your eyes look upon this half of me
with kind eyes. And now I shall tell thee that for this woman,
her heart is greater than a king's or a leader of folk.
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