Now if the said lord hath her, it will be somewhat more than hard for thee to get her again, till he have altogether done with her; for money and goods are naught to him beside the doing of his will.
But there is this for thy comfort, that whereas she is so fair a woman, she will be well with my lord.

For I warrant me that she will not dare to be proud with him, as she was with the folk here." "Yea," said Ralph, "and what is this lord of Utterbol that all folk, men and women, fear him so ?" Said the merchant: "Fair sir, thou must pardon me if I say no more of him.

Belike thou mayst fall in with him; and if thou dost, take heed that thou make not thyself great with him." So Ralph thanked the merchant and departed with Clement, of whom presently he asked if he knew aught of this lord of Utterbol.

Said Clement: "God forbid that I should ever meet him, save where I were many and he few.

I have never seen him; but he is deemed by all men as the worst of the tyrants who vex these lands, and, maybe, the mightiest." So was Ralph sore at heart for the damsel, and anon he spake to Bull again of her, who deemed somewhat, that his kinsman had been minded at the first to sell her to the lord of Utterbol.