which to say sooth I looked for, as ye are two such brisk lads, and the woman such a pearl of beauty, this is my bidding: let us bring her down into the peopled parts in peace and good fellowship, and then go all three before a priest and take God's body at his hands, and pray may it choke us and rot us if we take not her straight to the Lord James and sell her unto him for the best penny we may, and share all alike, even as the honest and merry merchants we be. Ha, what say ye now? Belike they saw that there was nothing else to be said, but as moody they were as moody might be. And to say sooth the Carline deemed that, had it not been for the serving-men that would be left over, she might well leave them to slay themselves. But now they went back to their folk, and the Carline followed them in a little while.
