There were their pleasant cots, and the little white church, and the fair walls of the castle on its low mound, and the day bright and sunny, all as aforetime, and Ralph looked on it all, and made no countenance of being moved beyond his wont.

So they came out of the wood, and rode to the ford of the river, and the carles and queans came streaming from their garths and meads to meet them, and stood round wondering at them; but an old carle came from out the throng and went up to Ralph, and hailed him, and said:  “Oh, Knight! and hast thou come back to us? and has thou brought us tidings of our Lady?  Who is this fair woman that rideth with thee?  Is it she?”

Spake Ralph:  “Nay; go look on her closely, and tell me thy deeming of her.”

So the carle went up to Ursula, and peered closely into her face, and took her hand and looked on it, and knelt down and took her foot out of the stirrup, and kissed it, and then came back to Ralph, and said:  “Fair Sir, I wot not but it may be her sister; for yonder old wise man I have seen here erst with our heavenly Lady.  But though this fair woman may be her sister, it is not she.  So tell me what is become of her, for it is long since we have seen her; and what thou tellest us, that same shall we trow, even as if thou wert her angel.  For I spake with thee, it is nigh two years agone, when thou wert abiding the coming of our Lady in the castle yonder But now I see of thee that thou art brighter-faced, and mightier of aspect than aforetime, and it is in my mind that the Lady of Abundance must have loved thee and holpen thee, and blessed thee with some great blessing.”

Said Ralph:  “Old man, canst thou feel sorrow, and canst thou bear it?” The carle shook his head.  “I wot not,” said he, “I fear thy words.”  Said Ralph:  “It were naught to say less than the truth; and this is the very truth, that thou shalt never see thy Lady any more.  I was the last living man that ever saw her alive.”

Then he spake in a loud voice and said:  “Lament, ye people! for the Lady of Abundance is dead; yet sure I am that she sendeth this message to you, Live in peace, and love ye the works of the earth.”

But when they heard him, the old man covered up his face with the folds of his gown, and all that folk brake forth into weeping, and crying out:  “Woe for us! the Lady of Abundance is dead!” and some of the younger men cast themselves down on to the earth, and wallowed, weeping and wailing:  and there was no man there that seemed as if he knew which way to turn, or what to do; and their faces were foolish with sorrow.  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.”