No mistake could be made when a goose flew over the walls that it was the one, for no other bird seemed all of silver as it did or had so noble a bearing. In size as well it was greater than most geese, but only so much as the horses that draw the chariot of a wealthy man who loves to win prizes surpass their cousins. It looked upon the knight that walked out with the eye of a lord whose own man has come to ask what people he hates so as to bring war to them till they beg for friendship and peace. The knight meanwhile saw a goose that needed plucking for the pride that it had, if for no better cause.

Sir Johan came near before the bird allowed itself to notice him, and even then it scorned to fly but instead ran about the court. It made use of its wings only enough to reach roofs where it watched the knight struggle to climb up walls of tree-grown stone, and it leapt off when he reached the top. Sir Johan did not bear that but threw the weighted net again and again. Yet the bird was too deft for it.

The chase went on in that way, and the goose dodged every net the knight cast as surely as he himself had the charges of that pasture-ruling bull. Then Sir Johan herded the goose toward the ruin that animal full of might had made, and both clambered up the displaced stones. There he tossed his net with a strong arm far ahead with no hope of catching it, but rather to make the bird to balk, which it did. For it thought first to turn aside and fly outside, but its lordly pride did not allow that, and so it did what was daring and ran toward the knight. It set its path between his legs as he hoped and failed to win through. Sir Johan dropped to his knees and grabbed up the goose, which flailed and cried and was caught.

The servants came out who had watched from within the buildings that ringed the open and grassy court, and all had great cheer to see the swift knight, able in the hunt, seize feathers from his prisoner who bore it as the conquered must, like a brave man taken after a fight who suffers defeat but not dishonor, uttering nothing without need.

One pillow was filled by that means, and another, and cushions as well, and Sir Johan called for so many that a ship-owning merchant might deem it a worthy cargo to cross the blue-gray sea. He did so saying that the servants had work to do about the meat and the walls enough that a better sleep was good for them as well as him. Yet as many feathers as the goose gave up, it had just as many as before, which was a wonder to all who saw it.

At last Sir Johan judged the ransom paid. He set the bird down outside the walls and said these words. “I am Johan of Ampherae. Take no insult that I overcame you, for I obey the rule for guests here by carrying out the part of the baron, who is away.” The lake-ruling fowl walked away, and someone come to visit then who had not seen the struggle must think it triumphant from the poise it showed.

Nothing more was done that day, and less during the night for how soundly all slept. The stars left the field to the far-frolicking sun whereupon Gualter the chamberlain saw off Sir Johan of Ampherae, and all the servants were with him. “Sir knight, I cannot say what my master would think of it, but for our part, you are most welcome here at any time you choose to return. More welcome than other guests we have had, for they take our rule not well, though the reason for that is clear enough, and oft treat us ill because of it. Nor do we hate to watch those three kings of animals, trees, and birds be humbled by our guest.”

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“If a rule deserves blame, it must be on the lord and not those who obey him. Yet even lords have their way in not all things but most of them. A barony such as this, that has much of strangeness in it, must spur its ruler to do what would elsewhere be odd. Indeed, so far am I from blaming Baron Onophrio that I hope to hear some word from you on where he may be now that I might thank him as I pass by, if I am able.”

Sir Johan said that. Gualter listened and pointed the way he should go, which was a trail where grass had been beaten down by feet so that some stayed flat, some sprung back when the boot was gone, and much of it had fled in panic and left the ground bare. The knight took his leave then and went thither across the barony that was thick with tall lumber waiting to be cut and put to use. A road crossed the trail that was cleared of anything but packed earth, which when he saw it put a thought in him that he was of a mind to pursue. He followed that road a short way to where it left the well-kept leafy gallery for open fields about a village, a small one, but nevertheless peopled by busy men and women. Thus assured that he walked through a real place where people and beasts of a common sort dwelt, not some fairyland with nothing but marvels, he went back to the trail and kept to it.

Along that less-traveled way he found another house, but this one noiseless and not used by the living. A pile of tree-grown stone made the tomb, and bronze its heavy door. A marker beside it told what corpses it held that the souls had fled long ago. Sir Johan leaned down to read the names, and he was not startled at it, that Baron Onophrio was laid within beside his mother and father, his uncles and one aunt, and his grandfather Onophrio as well.

Sir Johan prayed, and no more was he able to do than that. He rose then to leave and go on to some castle or city but halted. For behind him, up the trail, came a crowd that was the servants of Bevim Manor he had left and Gualter at the head of them. Those people as they walked toward him seemed not unlike men from the towns and villages around a city, chosen by lots for the chorus of a play written by a prize-winning playwright. Unskilled in acting and unsure of their voices, they stand not proudly but with eyes looking down, their fingers are busied with pulling or smoothing their rude and worn clothes, and the toes of their feet point to a spot not far in front of them as they wait to be judged, which will go ill for them, they ween. Even so did the baron's men and women behave then, and only Gualter among them had a mouth bold enough to speak.

“We found you, sir knight, before you went on, as we hoped. We the master's servants have lived for more than a year without him, who had no sons. Nor did that king in Cuculna send any baron here, not that we are grieved at that. Nor did we learn of any man able to do what Baron Onophrio did, not even Martim, the mightiest of us in his limbs, or any guest, no matter how doughty they seemed. And so we have no master. Yet after you left we mused on how well you did the master's tasks, and that without complaint, to the end that we had regret that we did not beg you to be our lord. Therefore we came here and hoped you might be here still.” He made that plea and knelt, as did all with him. And Sir Johan was minded to refuse, that knight of Ampherae, but he thought on whether that lordless city had any duty for him but to sit in assembly and listen to speeches heard before, and neither would he be missed.

“I will do so, and gladly,” he said.