"
Then Ralph drew her unto him; and the old man blessed them
and prayed for goodly offspring for them, that the House
of Upmeads might long endure.
And thus were they two left alone amidst the love and hope of the kindred,
as erst they lay alone in the desert.
CHAPTER 32
Yet a Few Words Concerning Ralph of Upmeads
Certain it is that Ralph failed not of his promise to the good
Prior of St. Austin's at Wulstead, but went to see him speedily,
and told him all the tale of his wanderings as closely as he might,
and hid naught from him; which, as ye may wot, was more than
one day's work or two or three. And ever when Ralph thus spoke
was a brother of the House sitting with the Prior, which brother
was a learned and wise man and very speedy and deft with his pen.
Wherefore it has been deemed not unlike that from this monk's
writing has come the more part of the tale above told.
And if it be so, it is well.
Furthermore, it is told of Ralph of Upmeads that he ruled over his
lands in right and might, and suffered no oppression within them,
and delivered other lands and good towns when they fell under tyrants
and oppressors; and for as kind a man as he was in hall and at hearth,
in the field he was a warrior so wise and dreadful, that oft forsooth
the very sound of his name and rumour of his coming stayed the march
of hosts and the ravage of fair lands; and no lord was ever more beloved.
Till his deathday he held the Castle of the Scaur, and cleansed
the Wood Perilous of all strong-thieves and reivers, so that no
high-street of a good town was safer than its glades and its byways.
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