CHAPTER VII. FACE-OF-GOD TALKETH WITH THE FRIEND ON THE MOUNTAIN
So now went all men to bed; and Face-to-god's shut-bed was over
against the outer door and toward the lower end of the hall, and on
the panel about it hung the weapons and shields of men. Fair was
that chamber and roomy, and the man was weary despite his eagerness,
so that he went to sleep as soon as his head touched the pillow; but
within a while (he deemed about two hours after midnight) he was
awaked by the clattering of the weapons against the panel, and the
sound of men's hands taking them down; and when he was fully awake,
he heard withal men going up and down the house as if on errands:
but he called to mind what the Friend had said to him, and he did not
so much as turn himself toward the hall; for he said: 'Belike these
men are outlaws and Wolves of the Holy Places, yet by seeming they
are good fellows and nought churlish, nor have I to do with taking up
the feud against them. I will abide the morning. Yet meseemeth that
she drew me hither: for what cause?'
Therewith he fell asleep again, and dreamed no more. But when he
awoke the sun was shining broad upon the hall-floor, and he sat up
and listened, but could hear no sound save the moaning of the wind in
the pine-boughs and the chatter of the starlings about the gables of
the house; and the place seemed so exceeding lonely to him that he
was in a manner feared by that loneliness.
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