Said the
townsman: Heard ye never of the Black Squire, a very valiant knight,
since thou sayest that thou hast known this country-side? She bowed
a yeasay, for this time she found it hard to speak.
Well, said the townsman, we held garrison in the Red Hold for some
three months, and thereafter we craved of him to come and be our
captain therein; for, even after the Hold was won, there was yet a
sort of runagates that haunted the country-side, men who had no craft
save lifting and slaying. And forsooth we knew this Lord Arthur for
the keenest and deftest of men-at-arms; so he yeasaid our asking, and
did all he might herein, and forsooth that was all there was to do;
for he was ever in the saddle, and at the work. Forsooth he was not
a merry man, save when he was at his busiest; and little he spake in
hall or chamber, else had he been better beloved. But at least by no
man better might the land have been served.
There was silence a little, and Birdalone waxed deadly pale; then she
strove with herself and said: Thou sayest he was and he was; is he
dead then? Said the townsman: Not to our knowledge.
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