世界尽头的那口井-CHAPTER 11 They Come to the Vale of Sweet Chestnuts
When they went on their way next morning they found little change in
the pass, and they rode the dread highway daylong, and it was still the
same: so they rested a little before nightfall at a place where there
was water running out of the rocks, but naught else for their avail.
Ralph was merry and helpful and filled water from the runnel, and
wrought what he might to make the lodging meet; and as they ate and
rested he said to Ursula: "Last night it was thou that beguiled me of
my gloom, yet thereafter till we slept it was my voice for the more
part, and not thine, that was heard in the wilderness. Now to-night it
shall be otherwise, and I will but ask a question of thee, and hearken
to the sweetness of thy voice."
She laughed a little and very sweetly, and she said: "Forsooth, dear
friend, I spoke to thee that I might hear thy voice for the more part,
and not mine, that was heard in the desert; but when I heard thee, I
deemed that the world was yet alive for us to come back to."
He was silent awhile, for his heart was pierced with the sweetness of
her speech, and he had fain have spoken back as sweetly as a man might;
yet he could not because he feared her somewhat, lest she should turn
cold to him; therefore himseemed that he spoke roughly, as he said:
"Nevertheless, my friend, I beseech thee to tell me of thine old home,
even as last night I told thee of mine."
"Yea," she said, "with a good will." And straightway she fell to
telling him of her ways when she was little, and of her father and
mother, and of her sister that had died, and the brother whom Ralph had
seen at Bourton Abbas: she told also of bachelors who had wooed her,
and jested concerning them, yet kindly and without malice, and talked
so sweetly and plainly, that the wilderness was become a familiar place
to Ralph, and he took her hand in the dusk and said: "But, my friend,
how was it with the man for whom thou wert weeping when I first fell in
with thee at Bourton Abbas?"
She said: "I will tell thee plainly, as a friend may to a friend.
Three hours had not worn from thy departure ere tidings came to me
concerning him, that neither death nor wounding had befallen him; and
that his masterless horse and bloodstained saddle were but a device to
throw dust into our eyes, so that there might be no chase after him by
the men of the Abbot's bailiff, and that he might lightly do as he
would, to wit, swear himself into the riders of the Burg of the Four
Friths; for, in sooth, he was weary of me and mine. Yet further, I
must needs tell thee that I know now, that when I wept before thee it
was partly in despite, because I had found out in my heart (though I
bade it not tell me so much) that I loved him but little."
"Yea," said Ralph, "and when didst thou come to that knowledge of thine
heart?"
"Dear friend," she said, "mayhappen I may tell thee hereafter, but as
now I will forbear." He laughed for joy of her, and in a little that
talk fell down between them.
Despite the terror of the desert and the lonely ways, when Ralph laid
him down on his stony bed, happiness wrapped his heart about. Albeit
all this while he durst not kiss or caress her, save very measurely,
for he deemed that she would not suffer it; nor as yet would he ask her
wherefore, though he had it in his mind that he would not always
forbear to ask her.
Many days they rode that pass of the mountains, though it was not
always so evil and dreadful as at the first beginning; for now again
the pass opened out into little valleys, wherein was foison of grass
and sweet waters withal, and a few trees. In such places must they
needs rest them, to refresh their horses as well as themselves, and to
gather food, of venison, and wild-fruit and nuts. But abiding in such
vales was very pleasant to them.
At last these said valleys came often and oftener, till it was so that
all was pretty much one valley, whiles broken by a mountain neck,
whiles straitened by a ness of the mountains that jutted into it, but
never quite blind: yet was the said valley very high up, and as it
were a trench of the great mountain. So they were glad that they had
escaped from that strait prison betwixt the rock-walls, and were well
at ease: and they failed never to find the tokens that led them on the
way, even as they had learned of the Sage, so that they were not
beguiled into any straying.
And now they had worn away thirty days since they had parted from the
Sage, and the days began to shorten and the nights to lengthen apace;
when on the forenoon of a day, after they had ridden a very rugged
mountain-neck, they came down and down into a much wider valley into
which a great reef of rocks thrust out from the high mountain, so that
the northern half of the said vale was nigh cleft atwain by it; well
grassed was the vale, and a fair river ran through it, and there were
on either side the water great groves of tall and great sweet-chestnuts
and walnut trees, whereon the nuts were now ripe. They rejoiced as
they rode into it; for they remembered how the Sage had told them
thereof, that their travel and toil should be stayed there awhile, and
that there they should winter, because of the bread which they could
make them of the chestnuts, and the plenty of walnuts, and that withal
there was foison of venison.
So they found a ford of the river and crossed it, and went straight to
the head of the rocky ness, being shown thither by the lore of the
Sage, and they found in the face of the rock the mouth of a cavern, and
beside it the token of the sword and the branch. Therefore they knew
that they had come to their winter house, and they rejoiced thereat,
and without more ado they got off their horses and went into the
cavern. The entry thereof was low, so that they must needs creep into
it, but within it was a rock-hall, high, clean and sweet-smelling.
There then they dight their dwelling, doing all they might to be done
with their work before the winter was upon them. The day after they
had come there they fell to on the in-gathering of their chestnut
harvest, and they dried them, and made them into meal; and the walnuts
they gathered also. Withal they hunted the deer, both great and small;
amongst which Ralph, not without some peril, slew two great bears, of
which beasts, indeed, there was somewhat more than enough, as they came
into the dale to feed upon the nuts and the berry-trees. So they soon
had good store of peltries for their beds and their winter raiment,
which Ursula fell to work on deftly, for she knew all the craft of
needlework; and, shortly to tell it, they had enough and to spare of
victual and raiment.