- The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wood Beyond the World, by William Morris
- This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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- Title: The Wood Beyond the World
- Author: William Morris
- Release Date: May 1, 2007 [eBook #3055]
- Language: English
- Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
- ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD***
- Transcribed from the 1913 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
- Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
- THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD
- BY WILLIAM MORRIS
- POCKET EDITION
- LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
- 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
- NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
- 1913
- CHAPTER I: OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHER
- Awhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly city by
- the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of five and
- twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather
- wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth, and
- a kind; not of many words but courteous of speech; no roisterer, nought
- masterful, but peaceable and knowing how to forbear: in a fray a perilous
- foe, and a trusty war-fellow. His father, with whom he was dwelling
- when this tale begins, was a great merchant, richer than a baron of the
- land, a head-man of the greatest of the Lineages of Langton, and a
- captain of the Porte; he was of the Lineage of the Goldings, therefore
- was he called Bartholomew Golden, and his son Golden Walter.
- Now ye may well deem that such a youngling as this was looked upon by all
- as a lucky man without a lack; but there was this flaw in his lot,
- whereas he had fallen into the toils of love of a woman exceeding fair,
- and had taken her to wife, she nought unwilling as it seemed. But when
- they had been wedded some six months he found by manifest tokens, that
- his fairness was not so much to her but that she must seek to the
- foulness of one worser than he in all ways; wherefore his rest departed
- from him, whereas he hated her for her untruth and her hatred of him; yet
- would the sound of her voice, as she came and went in the house, make his
- heart beat; and the sight of her stirred desire within him, so that he
- longed for her to be sweet and kind with him, and deemed that, might it
- be so, he should forget all the evil gone by. But it was not so; for
- ever when she saw him, her face changed, and her hatred of him became
- manifest, and howsoever she were sweet with others, with him she was hard
- and sour.
- So this went on a while till the chambers of his father's house, yea the
- very streets of the city, became loathsome to him; and yet he called to
- mind that the world was wide and he but a young man. So on a day as he
- sat with his father alone, he spake to him and said: "Father, I was on
- the quays even now, and I looked on the ships that were nigh boun, and
- thy sign I saw on a tall ship that seemed to me nighest boun. Will it
- be long ere she sail?"
- "Nay," said his father, "that ship, which hight the Katherine, will they
- warp out of the haven in two days' time. But why askest thou of her?"
- "The shortest word is best, father," said Walter, "and this it is, that I
- would depart in the said ship and see other lands."
- "Yea and whither, son?" said the merchant.
- "Whither she goeth," said Walter, "for I am ill at ease at home, as thou
- wottest, father."
- The merchant held his peace awhile, and looked hard on his son, for there
- was strong love between them; but at last he said: "Well, son, maybe it
- were best for thee; but maybe also we shall not meet again."
- "Yet if we do meet, father, then shalt thou see a new man in me."
- "Well," said Bartholomew, "at least I know on whom to lay the loss of
- thee, and when thou art gone, for thou shalt have thine own way herein,
- she shall no longer abide in my house. Nay, but it were for the strife
- that should arise thenceforth betwixt her kindred and ours, it should go
- somewhat worse with her than that."
- Said Walter: "I pray thee shame her not more than needs must be, lest, so
- doing, thou shame both me and thyself also."
- Bartholomew held his peace again for a while; then he said: "Goeth she
- with child, my son?"
- Walter reddened, and said: "I wot not; nor of whom the child may be."
- Then they both sat silent, till Bartholomew spake, saying: "The end of it
- is, son, that this is Monday, and that thou shalt go aboard in the small
- hours of Wednesday; and meanwhile I shall look to it that thou go not
- away empty-handed; the skipper of the Katherine is a good man and true,
- and knows the seas well; and my servant Robert the Low, who is clerk of
- the lading, is trustworthy and wise, and as myself in all matters that
- look towards chaffer. The Katherine is new and stout-builded, and
- should be lucky, whereas she is under the ward of her who is the saint
- called upon in the church where thou wert christened, and myself before
- thee; and thy mother, and my father and mother all lie under the chancel
- thereof, as thou wottest."
- Therewith the elder rose up and went his ways about his business, and
- there was no more said betwixt him and his son on this matter.
- CHAPTER II: GOLDEN WALTER TAKES SHIP TO SAIL THE SEAS
- When Walter went down to the Katherine next morning, there was the
- skipper Geoffrey, who did him reverence, and made him all cheer, and
- showed him his room aboard ship, and the plenteous goods which his father
- had sent down to the quays already, such haste as he had made. Walter
- thanked his father's love in his heart, but otherwise took little heed to
- his affairs, but wore away the time about the haven, gazing listlessly on
- the ships that were making them ready outward, or unlading, and the
- mariners and aliens coming and going: and all these were to him as the
- curious images woven on a tapestry.
- At last when he had wellnigh come back again to the Katherine, he saw
- there a tall ship, which he had scarce noted before, a ship all-boun,
- which had her boats out, and men sitting to the oars thereof ready to tow
- her outwards when the hawser should be cast off, and by seeming her
- mariners were but abiding for some one or other to come aboard.
- So Walter stood idly watching the said ship, and as he looked, lo! folk
- passing him toward the gangway. These were three; first came a dwarf,
- dark-brown of hue and hideous, with long arms and ears exceeding great
- and dog-teeth that stuck out like the fangs of a wild beast. He was clad
- in a rich coat of yellow silk, and bare in his hand a crooked bow, and
- was girt with a broad sax.
- After him came a maiden, young by seeming, of scarce twenty summers; fair
- of face as a flower; grey-eyed, brown-haired, with lips full and red,
- slim and gentle of body. Simple was her array, of a short and strait
- green gown, so that on her right ankle was clear to see an iron ring.
- Last of the three was a lady, tall and stately, so radiant of visage and
- glorious of raiment, that it were hard to say what like she was; for
- scarce might the eye gaze steady upon her exceeding beauty; yet must
- every son of Adam who found himself anigh her, lift up his eyes again
- after he had dropped them, and look again on her, and yet again and yet
- again. Even so did Walter, and as the three passed by him, it seemed to
- him as if all the other folk there about had vanished and were nought;
- nor had he any vision before his eyes of any looking on them, save
- himself alone. They went over the gangway into the ship, and he saw them
- go along the deck till they came to the house on the poop, and entered it
- and were gone from his sight.
- There he stood staring, till little by little the thronging people of the
- quays came into his eye-shot again; then he saw how the hawser was cast
- off and the boats fell to tugging the big ship toward the harbour-mouth
- with hale and how of men. Then the sail fell down from the yard and was
- sheeted home and filled with the fair wind as the ship's bows ran up on
- the first green wave outside the haven. Even therewith the shipmen cast
- abroad a banner, whereon was done in a green field a grim wolf ramping up
- against a maiden, and so went the ship upon her way.
- Walter stood awhile staring at her empty place where the waves ran into
- the haven-mouth, and then turned aside and toward the Katherine; and at
- first he was minded to go ask shipmaster Geoffrey of what he knew
- concerning the said ship and her alien wayfarers; but then it came into
- his mind, that all this was but an imagination or dream of the day, and
- that he were best to leave it untold to any. So therewith he went his
- way from the water-side, and through the streets unto his father's house;
- but when he was but a little way thence, and the door was before him, him-
- seemed for a moment of time that he beheld those three coming out down
- the steps of stone and into the street; to wit the dwarf, the maiden, and
- the stately lady: but when he stood still to abide their coming, and
- looked toward them, lo! there was nothing before him save the goodly
- house of Bartholomew Golden, and three children and a cur dog playing
- about the steps thereof, and about him were four or five passers-by going
- about their business. Then was he all confused in his mind, and knew not
- what to make of it, whether those whom he had seemed to see pass aboard
- ship were but images of a dream, or children of Adam in very flesh.
- Howsoever, he entered the house, and found his father in the chamber, and
- fell to speech with him about their matters; but for all that he loved
- his father, and worshipped him as a wise and valiant man, yet at that
- hour he might not hearken the words of his mouth, so much was his mind
- entangled in the thought of those three, and they were ever before his
- eyes, as if they had been painted on a table by the best of limners. And
- of the two women he thought exceeding much, and cast no wyte upon himself
- for running after the desire of strange women. For he said to himself
- that he desired not either of the twain; nay, he might not tell which of
- the twain, the maiden or the stately queen, were clearest to his eyes;
- but sore he desired to see both of them again, and to know what they
- were.
- So wore the hours till the Wednesday morning, and it was time that he
- should bid farewell to his father and get aboard ship; but his father led
- him down to the quays and on to the Katherine, and there Walter embraced
- him, not without tears and forebodings; for his heart was full. Then
- presently the old man went aland; the gangway was unshipped, the hawsers
- cast off; the oars of the towing-boats splashed in the dark water, the
- sail fell down from the yard, and was sheeted home, and out plunged the
- Katherine into the misty sea and rolled up the grey slopes, casting
- abroad her ancient withal, whereon was beaten the token of Bartholomew
- Golden, to wit a B and a G to the right and the left, and thereabove a
- cross and a triangle rising from the midst.
- Walter stood on the stern and beheld, yet more with the mind of him than
- with his eyes; for it all seemed but the double of what the other ship
- had done; and the thought of it as if the twain were as beads strung on
- one string and led away by it into the same place, and thence to go in
- the like order, and so on again and again, and never to draw nigher to
- each other.
- CHAPTER III: WALTER HEARETH TIDINGS OF THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER
- Fast sailed the Katherine over the seas, and nought befell to tell of,
- either to herself or her crew. She came to one cheaping-town and then to
- another, and so on to a third and a fourth; and at each was buying and
- selling after the manner of chapmen; and Walter not only looked on the
- doings of his father's folk, but lent a hand, what he might, to help them
- in all matters, whether it were in seaman's craft, or in chaffer. And
- the further he went and the longer the time wore, the more he was eased
- of his old trouble wherein his wife and her treason had to do.
- But as for the other trouble, to wit his desire and longing to come up
- with those three, it yet flickered before him; and though he had not seen
- them again as one sees people in the streets, and as if he might touch
- them if he would, yet were their images often before his mind's eye; and
- yet, as time wore, not so often, nor so troublously; and forsooth both to
- those about him and to himself, he seemed as a man well healed of his
- melancholy mood.
- Now they left that fourth stead, and sailed over the seas and came to a
- fifth, a very great and fair city, which they had made more than seven
- months from Langton on Holm; and by this time was Walter taking heed and
- joyance in such things as were toward in that fair city, so far from his
- kindred, and especially he looked on the fair women there, and desired
- them, and loved them; but lightly, as befalleth young men.
- Now this was the last country whereto the Katherine was boun; so there
- they abode some ten months in daily chaffer, and in pleasuring them in
- beholding all that there was of rare and goodly, and making merry with
- the merchants and the towns-folk, and the country-folk beyond the gates,
- and Walter was grown as busy and gay as a strong young man is like to be,
- and was as one who would fain be of some account amongst his own folk.
- But at the end of this while, it befell on a day, as he was leaving his
- hostel for his booth in the market, and had the door in his hand, there
- stood before him three mariners in the guise of his own country, and with
- them was one of clerkly aspect, whom he knew at once for his father's
- scrivener, Arnold Penstrong by name; and when Walter saw him his heart
- failed him and he cried out: "Arnold, what tidings? Is all well with the
- folk at Langton?"
- Said Arnold: "Evil tidings are come with me; matters are ill with thy
- folk; for I may not hide that thy father, Bartholomew Golden, is dead,
- God rest his soul."
- At that word it was to Walter as if all that trouble which but now had
- sat so light upon him, was once again fresh and heavy, and that his past
- life of the last few months had never been; and it was to him as if he
- saw his father lying dead on his bed, and heard the folk lamenting about
- the house. He held his peace awhile, and then he said in a voice as of
- an angry man:
- "What, Arnold! and did he die in his bed, or how? for he was neither old
- nor ailing when we parted."
- Said Arnold: "Yea, in his bed he died: but first he was somewhat sword-
- bitten."
- "Yea, and how?" quoth Walter.
- Said Arnold: "When thou wert gone, in a few days' wearing, thy father
- sent thy wife out of his house back to her kindred of the Reddings with
- no honour, and yet with no such shame as might have been, without blame
- to us of those who knew the tale of thee and her; which, God-a-mercy,
- will be pretty much the whole of the city."
- "Nevertheless, the Reddings took it amiss, and would have a mote with us
- Goldings to talk of booting. By ill-luck we yea-said that for the saving
- of the city's peace. But what betid? We met in our Gild-hall, and there
- befell the talk between us; and in that talk certain words could not be
- hidden, though they were none too seemly nor too meek. And the said
- words once spoken drew forth the whetted steel; and there then was the
- hewing and thrusting! Two of ours were slain outright on the floor, and
- four of theirs, and many were hurt on either side. Of these was thy
- father, for as thou mayst well deem, he was nought backward in the fray;
- but despite his hurts, two in the side and one on the arm, he went home
- on his own feet, and we deemed that we had come to our above. But well-a-
- way! it was an evil victory, whereas in ten days he died of his hurts.
- God have his soul! But now, my master, thou mayst well wot that I am not
- come to tell thee this only, but moreover to bear the word of the
- kindred, to wit that thou come back with me straightway in the swift
- cutter which hath borne me and the tidings; and thou mayst look to it,
- that though she be swift and light, she is a keel full weatherly."
- Then said Walter: "This is a bidding of war. Come back will I, and the
- Reddings shall wot of my coming. Are ye all-boun?"
- "Yea," said Arnold, "we may up anchor this very day, or to-morrow morn at
- latest. But what aileth thee, master, that thou starest so wild over my
- shoulder? I pray thee take it not so much to heart! Ever it is the wont
- of fathers to depart this world before their sons."
- But Walter's visage from wrathful red had become pale, and he pointed up
- street, and cried out: "Look! dost thou see?"
- "See what, master?" quoth Arnold: "what! here cometh an ape in gay
- raiment; belike the beast of some jongleur. Nay, by God's wounds! 'tis a
- man, though he be exceeding mis-shapen like a very devil. Yea and now
- there cometh a pretty maid going as if she were of his meney; and lo!
- here, a most goodly and noble lady! Yea, I see; and doubtless she owneth
- both the two, and is of the greatest of the folk of this fair city; for
- on the maiden's ankle I saw an iron ring, which betokeneth thralldom
- amongst these aliens. But this is strange! for notest thou not how the
- folk in the street heed not this quaint show; nay not even the stately
- lady, though she be as lovely as a goddess of the gentiles, and beareth
- on her gems that would buy Langton twice over; surely they must be over-
- wont to strange and gallant sights. But now, master, but now!"
- "Yea, what is it?" said Walter.
- "Why, master, they should not yet be gone out of eye-shot, yet gone they
- are. What is become of them, are they sunk into the earth?"
- "Tush, man!" said Walter, looking not on Arnold, but still staring down
- the street; "they have gone into some house while thine eyes were turned
- from them a moment."
- "Nay, master, nay," said Arnold, "mine eyes were not off them one instant
- of time."
- "Well," said Walter, somewhat snappishly, "they are gone now, and what
- have we to do to heed such toys, we with all this grief and strife on our
- hands? Now would I be alone to turn the matter of thine errand over in
- my mind. Meantime do thou tell the shipmaster Geoffrey and our other
- folk of these tidings, and thereafter get thee all ready; and come hither
- to me before sunrise to-morrow, and I shall be ready for my part; and so
- sail we back to Langton."
- Therewith he turned him back into the house, and the others went their
- ways; but Walter sat alone in his chamber a long while, and pondered
- these things in his mind. And whiles he made up his mind that he would
- think no more of the vision of those three, but would fare back to
- Langton, and enter into the strife with the Reddings and quell them, or
- die else. But lo, when he was quite steady in this doom, and his heart
- was lightened thereby, he found that he thought no more of the Reddings
- and their strife, but as matters that were passed and done with, and that
- now he was thinking and devising if by any means he might find out in
- what land dwelt those three. And then again he strove to put that from
- him, saying that what he had seen was but meet for one brainsick, and a
- dreamer of dreams. But furthermore he thought, Yea, and was Arnold, who
- this last time had seen the images of those three, a dreamer of waking
- dreams? for he was nought wonted in such wise; then thought he: At least
- I am well content that he spake to me of their likeness, not I to him;
- for so I may tell that there was at least something before my eyes which
- grew not out of mine own brain. And yet again, why should I follow them;
- and what should I get by it; and indeed how shall I set about it?
- Thus he turned the matter over and over; and at last, seeing that if he
- grew no foolisher over it, he grew no wiser, he became weary thereof, and
- bestirred him, and saw to the trussing up of his goods, and made all
- ready for his departure, and so wore the day and slept at nightfall; and
- at daybreak comes Arnold to lead him to their keel, which hight the
- Bartholomew. He tarried nought, and with few farewells went aboard ship,
- and an hour after they were in the open sea with the ship's head turned
- toward Langton on Holm.
- CHAPTER IV: STORM BEFALLS THE BARTHOLOMEW, AND SHE IS DRIVEN OFF HER
- COURSE
- Now swift sailed the Bartholomew for four weeks toward the north-west
- with a fair wind, and all was well with ship and crew. Then the wind
- died out on even of a day, so that the ship scarce made way at all,
- though she rolled in a great swell of the sea, so great, that it seemed
- to ridge all the main athwart. Moreover down in the west was a great
- bank of cloud huddled up in haze, whereas for twenty days past the sky
- had been clear, save for a few bright white clouds flying before the
- wind. Now the shipmaster, a man right cunning in his craft, looked long
- on sea and sky, and then turned and bade the mariners take in sail and be
- right heedful. And when Walter asked him what he looked for, and
- wherefore he spake not to him thereof, he said surlily: "Why should I
- tell thee what any fool can see without telling, to wit that there is
- weather to hand?"
- So they abode what should befall, and Walter went to his room to sleep
- away the uneasy while, for the night was now fallen; and he knew no more
- till he was waked up by great hubbub and clamour of the shipmen, and the
- whipping of ropes, and thunder of flapping sails, and the tossing and
- weltering of the ship withal. But, being a very stout-hearted young man,
- he lay still in his room, partly because he was a landsman, and had no
- mind to tumble about amongst the shipmen and hinder them; and withal he
- said to himself: What matter whether I go down to the bottom of the sea,
- or come back to Langton, since either way my life or my death will take
- away from me the fulfilment of desire? Yet soothly if there hath been a
- shift of wind, that is not so ill; for then shall we be driven to other
- lands, and so at the least our home-coming shall be delayed, and other
- tidings may hap amidst of our tarrying. So let all be as it will.
- So in a little while, in spite of the ship's wallowing and the tumult of
- the wind and waves, he fell asleep again, and woke no more till it was
- full daylight, and there was the shipmaster standing in the door of his
- room, the sea-water all streaming from his wet-weather raiment. He said
- to Walter: "Young master, the sele of the day to thee! For by good hap
- we have gotten into another day. Now I shall tell thee that we have
- striven to beat, so as not to be driven off our course, but all would not
- avail, wherefore for these three hours we have been running before the
- wind; but, fair sir, so big hath been the sea that but for our ship being
- of the stoutest, and our men all yare, we had all grown exceeding wise
- concerning the ground of the mid-main. Praise be to St. Nicholas and all
- Hallows! for though ye shall presently look upon a new sea, and maybe a
- new land to boot, yet is that better than looking on the ugly things down
- below."
- "Is all well with ship and crew then?" said Walter.
- "Yea forsooth," said the shipmaster; "verily the Bartholomew is the
- darling of Oak Woods; come up and look at it, how she is dealing with
- wind and waves all free from fear."
- So Walter did on his foul-weather raiment, and went up on to the quarter-
- deck, and there indeed was a change of days; for the sea was dark and
- tumbling mountain-high, and the white-horses were running down the
- valleys thereof, and the clouds drave low over all, and bore a scud of
- rain along with them; and though there was but a rag of sail on her, the
- ship flew before the wind, rolling a great wash of water from bulwark to
- bulwark.
- Walter stood looking on it all awhile, holding on by a stay-rope, and
- saying to himself that it was well that they were driving so fast toward
- new things.
- Then the shipmaster came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder and
- said: "Well, shipmate, cheer up! and now come below again and eat some
- meat, and drink a cup with me."
- So Walter went down and ate and drank, and his heart was lighter than it
- had been since he had heard of his father's death, and the feud awaiting
- him at home, which forsooth he had deemed would stay his wanderings a
- weary while, and therewithal his hopes. But now it seemed as if he needs
- must wander, would he, would he not; and so it was that even this fed his
- hope; so sore his heart clung to that desire of his to seek home to those
- three that seemed to call him unto them.
- CHAPTER V: NOW THEY COME TO A NEW LAND
- Three days they drave before the wind, and on the fourth the clouds
- lifted, the sun shone out and the offing was clear; the wind had much
- abated, though it still blew a breeze, and was a head wind for sailing
- toward the country of Langton. So then the master said that, since they
- were bewildered, and the wind so ill to deal with, it were best to go
- still before the wind that they might make some land and get knowledge of
- their whereabouts from the folk thereof. Withal he said that he deemed
- the land not to be very far distant.
- So did they, and sailed on pleasantly enough, for the weather kept on
- mending, and the wind fell till it was but a light breeze, yet still foul
- for Langton.
- So wore three days, and on the eve of the third, the man from the topmast
- cried out that he saw land ahead; and so did they all before the sun was
- quite set, though it were but a cloud no bigger than a man's hand.
- When night fell they struck not sail, but went forth toward the land fair
- and softly; for it was early summer, so that the nights were neither long
- nor dark.
- But when it was broad daylight, they opened a land, a long shore of rocks
- and mountains, and nought else that they could see at first. Nevertheless
- as day wore and they drew nigher, first they saw how the mountains fell
- away from the sea, and were behind a long wall of sheer cliff; and coming
- nigher yet, they beheld a green plain going up after a little in green
- bents and slopes to the feet of the said cliff-wall.
- No city nor haven did they see there, not even when they were far nigher
- to the land; nevertheless, whereas they hankered for the peace of the
- green earth after all the tossing and unrest of the sea, and whereas also
- they doubted not to find at the least good and fresh water, and belike
- other bait in the plain under the mountains, they still sailed on not
- unmerrily; so that by nightfall they cast anchor in five-fathom water
- hard by the shore.
- Next morning they found that they were lying a little way off the mouth
- of a river not right great; so they put out their boats and towed the
- ship up into the said river, and when they had gone up it for a mile or
- thereabouts they found the sea water failed, for little was the ebb and
- flow of the tide on that coast. Then was the river deep and clear,
- running between smooth grassy land like to meadows. Also on their left
- board they saw presently three head of neat cattle going, as if in a
- meadow of a homestead in their own land, and a few sheep; and thereafter,
- about a bow-draught from the river, they saw a little house of wood and
- straw-thatch under a wooded mound, and with orchard trees about it. They
- wondered little thereat, for they knew no cause why that land should not
- be builded, though it were in the far outlands. However, they drew their
- ship up to the bank, thinking that they would at least abide awhile and
- ask tidings and have some refreshing of the green plain, which was so
- lovely and pleasant.
- But while they were busied herein they saw a man come out of the house,
- and down to the river to meet them; and they soon saw that he was tall
- and old, long-hoary of hair and beard, and clad mostly in the skins of
- beasts.
- He drew nigh without any fear or mistrust, and coming close to them gave
- them the sele of the day in a kindly and pleasant voice. The shipmaster
- greeted him in his turn, and said withal: "Old man, art thou the king of
- this country?"
- The elder laughed; "It hath had none other a long while," said he; "and
- at least there is no other son of Adam here to gainsay."
- "Thou art alone here then?" said the master.
- "Yea," said the old man; "save for the beasts of the field and the wood,
- and the creeping things, and fowl. Wherefore it is sweet to me to hear
- your voices."
- Said the master: "Where be the other houses of the town?"
- The old man laughed. Said he: "When I said that I was alone, I meant
- that I was alone in the land and not only alone in this stead. There is
- no house save this betwixt the sea and the dwellings of the Bears, over
- the cliff-wall yonder, yea and a long way over it."
- "Yea," quoth the shipmaster grinning, "and be the bears of thy country so
- manlike, that they dwell in builded houses?"
- The old man shook his head. "Sir," said he, "as to their bodily fashion,
- it is altogether manlike, save that they be one and all higher and bigger
- than most. For they be bears only in name; they be a nation of half wild
- men; for I have been told by them that there be many more than that tribe
- whose folk I have seen, and that they spread wide about behind these
- mountains from east to west. Now, sir, as to their souls and
- understandings I warrant them not; for miscreants they be, trowing
- neither in God nor his hallows."
- Said the master: "Trow they in Mahound then?"
- "Nay," said the elder, "I wot not for sure that they have so much as a
- false God; though I have it from them that they worship a certain woman
- with mickle worship."
- Then spake Walter: "Yea, good sir, and how knowest thou that? dost thou
- deal with them at all?"
- Said the old man: "Whiles some of that folk come hither and have of me
- what I can spare; a calf or two, or a half-dozen of lambs or hoggets; or
- a skin of wine or cyder of mine own making: and they give me in return
- such things as I can use, as skins of hart and bear and other peltries;
- for now I am old, I can but little of the hunting hereabout. Whiles,
- also, they bring little lumps of pure copper, and would give me gold
- also, but it is of little use in this lonely land. Sooth to say, to me
- they are not masterful or rough-handed; but glad am I that they have been
- here but of late, and are not like to come again this while; for terrible
- they are of aspect, and whereas ye be aliens, belike they would not hold
- their hands from off you; and moreover ye have weapons and other matters
- which they would covet sorely."
- Quoth the master: "Since thou dealest with these wild men, will ye not
- deal with us in chaffer? For whereas we are come from long travel, we
- hanker after fresh victual, and here aboard are many things which were
- for thine avail."
- Said the old man: "All that I have is yours, so that ye do but leave me
- enough till my next ingathering: of wine and cyder, such as it is, I have
- plenty for your service; ye may drink it till it is all gone, if ye will:
- a little corn and meal I have, but not much; yet are ye welcome thereto,
- since the standing corn in my garth is done blossoming, and I have other
- meat. Cheeses have I and dried fish; take what ye will thereof. But as
- to my neat and sheep, if ye have sore need of any, and will have them, I
- may not say you nay: but I pray you if ye may do without them, not to
- take my milch-beasts or their engenderers; for, as ye have heard me say,
- the Bear-folk have been here but of late, and they have had of me all I
- might spare: but now let me tell you, if ye long after flesh-meat, that
- there is venison of hart and hind, yea, and of buck and doe, to be had on
- this plain, and about the little woods at the feet of the rock-wall
- yonder: neither are they exceeding wild; for since I may not take them, I
- scare them not, and no other man do they see to hurt them; for the Bear-
- folk come straight to my house, and fare straight home thence. But I
- will lead you the nighest way to where the venison is easiest to be
- gotten. As to the wares in your ship, if ye will give me aught I will
- take it with a good will; and chiefly if ye have a fair knife or two and
- a roll of linen cloth, that were a good refreshment to me. But in any
- case what I have to give is free to you and welcome."
- The shipmaster laughed: "Friend," said he, "we can thee mickle thanks for
- all that thou biddest us. And wot well that we be no lifters or
- sea-thieves to take thy livelihood from thee. So to-morrow, if thou
- wilt, we will go with thee and upraise the hunt, and meanwhile we will
- come aland, and walk on the green grass, and water our ship with thy good
- fresh water."
- So the old carle went back to his house to make them ready what cheer he
- might, and the shipmen, who were twenty and one, all told, what with the
- mariners and Arnold and Walter's servants, went ashore, all but two who
- watched the ship and abode their turn. They went well-weaponed, for both
- the master and Walter deemed wariness wisdom, lest all might not be so
- good as it seemed. They took of their sail-cloths ashore and tilted them
- in on the meadow betwixt the house and the ship, and the carle brought
- them what he had for their avail, of fresh fruits, and cheeses, and milk,
- and wine, and cyder, and honey, and there they feasted nowise ill, and
- were right fain.
- CHAPTER VI: THE OLD MAN TELLS WALTER OF HIMSELF. WALTER SEES A SHARD IN
- THE CLIFF-WALL
- But when they had done their meat and drink the master and the shipmen
- went about the watering of the ship, and the others strayed off along the
- meadow, so that presently Walter was left alone with the carle, and fell
- to speech with him and said: "Father, meseemeth thou shouldest have some
- strange tale to tell, and as yet we have asked thee of nought save meat
- for our bellies: now if I ask thee concerning thy life, and how thou
- camest hither, and abided here, wilt thou tell me aught?"
- The old man smiled on him and said: "Son, my tale were long to tell; and
- mayhappen concerning much thereof my memory should fail me; and withal
- there is grief therein, which I were loth to awaken: nevertheless if thou
- ask, I will answer as I may, and in any case will tell thee nought save
- the truth."
- Said Walter: "Well then, hast thou been long here?"
- "Yea," said the carle, "since I was a young man, and a stalwarth knight."
- Said Walter: "This house, didst thou build it, and raise these garths,
- and plant orchard and vineyard, and gather together the neat and the
- sheep, or did some other do all this for thee?"
- Said the carle: "I did none of all this; there was one here before me,
- and I entered into his inheritance, as though this were a lordly manor,
- with a fair castle thereon, and all well stocked and plenished."
- Said Walter: "Didst thou find thy foregoer alive here?"
- "Yea," said the elder, "yet he lived but for a little while after I came
- to him."
- He was silent a while, and then he said: "I slew him: even so would he
- have it, though I bade him a better lot."
- Said Walter: "Didst thou come hither of thine own will?"
- "Mayhappen," said the carle; "who knoweth? Now have I no will to do
- either this or that. It is wont that maketh me do, or refrain."
- Said Walter: "Tell me this; why didst thou slay the man? did he any
- scathe to thee?"
- Said the elder: "When I slew him, I deemed that he was doing me all
- scathe: but now I know that it was not so. Thus it was: I would needs go
- where he had been before, and he stood in the path against me; and I
- overthrew him, and went on the way I would."
- "What came thereof?" said Walter.
- "Evil came of it," said the carle.
- Then was Walter silent a while, and the old man spake nothing; but there
- came a smile in his face that was both sly and somewhat sad. Walter
- looked on him and said: "Was it from hence that thou wouldst go that
- road?"
- "Yea," said the carle.
- Said Walter: "And now wilt thou tell me what that road was; whither it
- went and whereto it led, that thou must needs wend it, though thy first
- stride were over a dead man?"
- "I will not tell thee," said the carle.
- Then they held their peace, both of them, and thereafter got on to other
- talk of no import.
- So wore the day till night came; and they slept safely, and on the morrow
- after they had broken their fast, the more part of them set off with the
- carle to the hunting, and they went, all of them, a three hours' faring
- towards the foot of the cliffs, which was all grown over with coppice,
- hazel and thorn, with here and there a big oak or ash-tree; there it was,
- said the old man, where the venison was most and best.
- Of their hunting need nought be said, saving that when the carle had put
- them on the track of the deer and shown them what to do, he came back
- again with Walter, who had no great lust for the hunting, and sorely
- longed to have some more talk with the said carle. He for his part
- seemed nought loth thereto, and so led Walter to a mound or hillock
- amidst the clear of the plain, whence all was to be seen save where the
- wood covered it; but just before where they now lay down there was no
- wood, save low bushes, betwixt them and the rock-wall; and Walter noted
- that whereas otherwhere, save in one place whereto their eyes were
- turned, the cliffs seemed wellnigh or quite sheer, or indeed in some
- places beetling over, in that said place they fell away from each other
- on either side; and before this sinking was a slope or scree, that went
- gently up toward the sinking of the wall. Walter looked long and
- earnestly at this place, and spake nought, till the carle said: "What!
- thou hast found something before thee to look on. What is it then?"
- Quoth Walter: "Some would say that where yonder slopes run together up
- towards that sinking in the cliff-wall there will be a pass into the
- country beyond."
- The carle smiled and said: "Yea, son; nor, so saying, would they err; for
- that is the pass into the Bear-country, whereby those huge men come down
- to chaffer with me."
- "Yea," said Walter; and therewith he turned him a little, and scanned the
- rock-wall, and saw how a few miles from that pass it turned somewhat
- sharply toward the sea, narrowing the plain much there, till it made a
- bight, the face whereof looked wellnigh north, instead of west, as did
- the more part of the wall. And in the midst of that northern-looking
- bight was a dark place which seemed to Walter like a downright shard in
- the cliff. For the face of the wall was of a bleak grey, and it was but
- little furrowed.
- So then Walter spake: "Lo, old friend, there yonder is again a place that
- meseemeth is a pass; whereunto doth that one lead?" And he pointed to
- it: but the old man did not follow the pointing of his finger, but,
- looking down on the ground, answered confusedly, and said:
- "Maybe: I wot not. I deem that it also leadeth into the Bear-country by
- a roundabout road. It leadeth into the far land."
- Walter answered nought: for a strange thought had come uppermost in his
- mind, that the carle knew far more than he would say of that pass, and
- that he himself might be led thereby to find the wondrous three. He
- caught his breath hardly, and his heart knocked against his ribs; but he
- refrained from speaking for a long while; but at last he spake in a sharp
- hard voice, which he scarce knew for his own: "Father, tell me, I adjure
- thee by God and All-hallows, was it through yonder shard that the road
- lay, when thou must needs make thy first stride over a dead man?"
- The old man spake not a while, then he raised his head, and looked Walter
- full in the eyes, and said in a steady voice: "NO, IT WAS NOT."
- Thereafter they sat looking at each other a while; but at last Walter
- turned his eyes away, but knew not what they beheld nor where he was, but
- he was as one in a swoon. For he knew full well that the carle had lied
- to him, and that he might as well have said aye as no, and told him, that
- it verily was by that same shard that he had stridden over a dead man.
- Nevertheless he made as little semblance thereof as he might, and
- presently came to himself, and fell to talking of other matters, that had
- nought to do with the adventures of the land. But after a while he spake
- suddenly, and said: "My master, I was thinking of a thing."
- "Yea, of what?" said the carle.
- "Of this," said Walter; "that here in this land be strange adventures
- toward, and that if we, and I in especial, were to turn our backs on
- them, and go home with nothing done, it were pity of our lives: for all
- will be dull and deedless there. I was deeming it were good if we tried
- the adventure."
- "What adventure?" said the old man, rising up on his elbow and staring
- sternly on him.
- Said Walter: "The wending yonder pass to the eastward, whereby the huge
- men come to thee from out of the Bear-country; that we might see what
- should come thereof."
- The carle leaned back again, and smiled and shook his head, and spake:
- "That adventure were speedily proven: death would come of it, my son."
- "Yea, and how?" said Walter.
- The carle said: "The big men would take thee, and offer thee up as a
- blood-offering to that woman, who is their Mawmet. And if ye go all,
- then shall they do the like with all of you."
- Said Walter: "Is that sure?"
- "Dead sure," said the carle.
- "How knowest thou this?" said Walter.
- "I have been there myself," said the carle.
- "Yea," said Walter, "but thou camest away whole."
- "Art thou sure thereof?" said the carle.
- "Thou art alive yet, old man," said Walter, "for I have seen thee eat thy
- meat, which ghosts use not to do." And he laughed.
- But the old man answered soberly: "If I escaped, it was by this, that
- another woman saved me, and not often shall that befall. Nor wholly was
- I saved; my body escaped forsooth. But where is my soul? Where is my
- heart, and my life? Young man, I rede thee, try no such adventure; but
- go home to thy kindred if thou canst. Moreover, wouldst thou fare alone?
- The others shall hinder thee."
- Said Walter: "I am the master; they shall do as I bid them: besides, they
- will be well pleased to share my goods amongst them if I give them a
- writing to clear them of all charges which might be brought against
- them."
- "My son! my son!" said the carle, "I pray thee go not to thy death!"
- Walter heard him silently, but as if he were persuaded to refrain; and
- then the old man fell to, and told him much concerning this Bear-folk and
- their customs, speaking very freely of them; but Walter's ears were
- scarce open to this talk: whereas he deemed that he should have nought to
- do with those wild men; and he durst not ask again concerning the country
- whereto led the pass on the northward.
- CHAPTER VII: WALTER COMES TO THE SHARD IN THE ROCK-WALL
- As they were in converse thus, they heard the hunters blowing on their
- horns all together; whereon the old man arose, and said: "I deem by the
- blowing that the hunt will be over and done, and that they be blowing on
- their fellows who have gone scatter-meal about the wood. It is now some
- five hours after noon, and thy men will be getting back with their
- venison, and will be fainest of the victuals they have caught; therefore
- will I hasten on before, and get ready fire and water and other matters
- for the cooking. Wilt thou come with me, young master, or abide thy men
- here?"
- Walter said lightly: "I will rest and abide them here; since I cannot
- fail to see them hence as they go on their ways to thine house. And it
- may be well that I be at hand to command them and forbid, and put some
- order amongst them, for rough playmates they be, some of them, and now
- all heated with the hunting and the joy of the green earth." Thus he
- spoke, as if nought were toward save supper and bed; but inwardly hope
- and fear were contending in him, and again his heart beat so hard, that
- he deemed that the carle must surely hear it. But the old man took him
- but according to his outward seeming, and nodded his head, and went away
- quietly toward his house.
- When he had been gone a little, Walter rose up heedfully; he had with him
- a scrip wherein was some cheese and hard-fish, and a little flasket of
- wine; a short bow he had with him, and a quiver of arrows; and he was
- girt with a strong and good sword, and a wood-knife withal. He looked to
- all this gear that it was nought amiss, and then speedily went down off
- the mound, and when he was come down, he found that it covered him from
- men coming out of the wood, if he went straight thence to that shard of
- the rock-wall where was the pass that led southward.
- Now it is no nay that thitherward he turned, and went wisely, lest the
- carle should make a backward cast, and see him, or lest any straggler of
- his own folk might happen upon him.
- For to say sooth, he deemed that did they wind him, they would be like to
- let him of his journey. He had noted the bearings of the cliffs nigh the
- shard, and whereas he could see their heads everywhere except from the
- depths of the thicket, he was not like to go astray.
- He had made no great way ere he heard the horns blowing all together
- again in one place, and looking thitherward through the leafy boughs (for
- he was now amidst of a thicket) he saw his men thronging the mound, and
- had no doubt therefore that they were blowing on him; but being well
- under cover he heeded it nought, and lying still a little, saw them go
- down off the mound and go all of them toward the carle's house, still
- blowing as they went, but not faring scatter-meal. Wherefore it was
- clear that they were nought troubled about him.
- So he went on his way to the shard; and there is nothing to say of his
- journey till he got before it with the last of the clear day, and entered
- it straightway. It was in sooth a downright breach or cleft in the rock-
- wall, and there was no hill or bent leading up to it, nothing but a
- tumble of stones before it, which was somewhat uneasy going, yet needed
- nought but labour to overcome it, and when he had got over this, and was
- in the very pass itself, he found it no ill going: forsooth at first it
- was little worse than a rough road betwixt two great stony slopes, though
- a little trickle of water ran down amidst of it. So, though it was so
- nigh nightfall, yet Walter pressed on, yea, and long after the very night
- was come. For the moon rose wide and bright a little after nightfall.
- But at last he had gone so long, and was so wearied, that he deemed it
- nought but wisdom to rest him, and so lay down on a piece of greensward
- betwixt the stones, when he had eaten a morsel out of his satchel, and
- drunk of the water out of the stream. There as he lay, if he had any
- doubt of peril, his weariness soon made it all one to him, for presently
- he was sleeping as soundly as any man in Langton on Holm.
- CHAPTER VIII: WALTER WENDS THE WASTE
- Day was yet young when he awoke: he leapt to his feet, and went down to
- the stream and drank of its waters, and washed the night off him in a
- pool thereof, and then set forth on his way again. When he had gone some
- three hours, the road, which had been going up all the way, but somewhat
- gently, grew steeper, and the bent on either side lowered, and lowered,
- till it sank at last altogether, and then was he on a rough mountain-neck
- with little grass, and no water; save that now and again was a soft place
- with a flow amidst of it, and such places he must needs fetch a compass
- about, lest he be mired. He gave himself but little rest, eating what he
- needs must as he went. The day was bright and calm, so that the sun was
- never hidden, and he steered by it due south. All that day he went, and
- found no more change in that huge neck, save that whiles it was more and
- whiles less steep. A little before nightfall he happened on a shallow
- pool some twenty yards over; and he deemed it good to rest there, since
- there was water for his avail, though he might have made somewhat more
- out of the tail end of the day.
- When dawn came again he awoke and arose, nor spent much time over his
- breakfast; but pressed on all he might; and now he said to himself, that
- whatsoever other peril were athwart his way, he was out of the danger of
- the chase of his own folk.
- All this while he had seen no four-footed beast, save now and again a
- hill-fox, and once some outlandish kind of hare; and of fowl but very
- few: a crow or two, a long-winged hawk, and twice an eagle high up aloft.
- Again, the third night, he slept in the stony wilderness, which still led
- him up and up. Only toward the end of the day, himseemed that it had
- been less steep for a long while: otherwise nought was changed, on all
- sides it was nought but the endless neck, wherefrom nought could be seen,
- but some other part of itself. This fourth night withal he found no
- water whereby he might rest, so that he awoke parched, and longing to
- drink just when the dawn was at its coldest.
- But on the fifth morrow the ground rose but little, and at last, when he
- had been going wearily a long while, and now, hard on noontide, his
- thirst grieved him sorely, he came on a spring welling out from under a
- high rock, the water wherefrom trickled feebly away. So eager was he to
- drink, that at first he heeded nought else; but when his thirst was fully
- quenched his eyes caught sight of the stream which flowed from the well,
- and he gave a shout, for lo! it was running south. Wherefore it was with
- a merry heart that he went on, and as he went, came on more streams, all
- running south or thereabouts. He hastened on all he might, but in
- despite of all the speed he made, and that he felt the land now going
- down southward, night overtook him in that same wilderness. Yet when he
- stayed at last for sheer weariness, he lay down in what he deemed by the
- moonlight to be a shallow valley, with a ridge at the southern end
- thereof.
- He slept long, and when he awoke the sun was high in the heavens, and
- never was brighter or clearer morning on the earth than was that. He
- arose and ate of what little was yet left him, and drank of the water of
- a stream which he had followed the evening before, and beside which he
- had laid him down; and then set forth again with no great hope to come on
- new tidings that day. But yet when he was fairly afoot, himseemed that
- there was something new in the air which he breathed, that was soft and
- bore sweet scents home to him; whereas heretofore, and that especially
- for the last three or four days, it had been harsh and void, like the
- face of the desert itself.
- So on he went, and presently was mounting the ridge aforesaid, and, as
- oft happens when one climbs a steep place, he kept his eyes on the
- ground, till he felt he was on the top of the ridge. Then he stopped to
- take breath, and raised his head and looked, and lo! he was verily on the
- brow of the great mountain-neck, and down below him was the hanging of
- the great hill-slopes, which fell down, not slowly, as those he had been
- those days a-mounting, but speedily enough, though with little of broken
- places or sheer cliffs. But beyond this last of the desert there was
- before him a lovely land of wooded hills, green plains, and little
- valleys, stretching out far and wide, till it ended at last in great blue
- mountains and white snowy peaks beyond them.
- Then for very surprise of joy his spirit wavered, and he felt faint and
- dizzy, so that he was fain to sit down a while and cover his face with
- his hands. Presently he came to his sober mind again, and stood up and
- looked forth keenly, and saw no sign of any dwelling of man. But he said
- to himself that that might well be because the good and well-grassed land
- was still so far off, and that he might yet look to find men and their
- dwellings when he had left the mountain wilderness quite behind him: So
- therewith he fell to going his ways down the mountain, and lost little
- time therein, whereas he now had his livelihood to look to.
- CHAPTER IX: WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE FIRST OF THOSE THREE CREATURES
- What with one thing, what with another, as his having to turn out of his
- way for sheer rocks, or for slopes so steep that he might not try the
- peril of them, and again for bogs impassable, he was fully three days
- more before he had quite come out of the stony waste, and by that time,
- though he had never lacked water, his scanty victual was quite done, for
- all his careful husbandry thereof. But this troubled him little, whereas
- he looked to find wild fruits here and there and to shoot some small
- deer, as hare or coney, and make a shift to cook the same, since he had
- with him flint and fire-steel. Moreover the further he went, the surer
- he was that he should soon come across a dwelling, so smooth and fair as
- everything looked before him. And he had scant fear, save that he might
- happen on men who should enthrall him.
- But when he was come down past the first green slopes, he was so worn,
- that he said to himself that rest was better than meat, so little as he
- had slept for the last three days; so he laid him down under an ash-tree
- by a stream-side, nor asked what was o'clock, but had his fill of sleep,
- and even when he awoke in the fresh morning was little fain of rising,
- but lay betwixt sleeping and waking for some three hours more; then he
- arose, and went further down the next green bent, yet somewhat slowly
- because of his hunger-weakness. And the scent of that fair land came up
- to him like the odour of one great nosegay.
- So he came to where the land was level, and there were many trees, as oak
- and ash, and sweet-chestnut and wych-elm, and hornbeam and quicken-tree,
- not growing in a close wood or tangled thicket, but set as though in
- order on the flowery greensward, even as it might be in a great king's
- park.
- So came he to a big bird-cherry, whereof many boughs hung low down laden
- with fruit: his belly rejoiced at the sight, and he caught hold of a
- bough, and fell to plucking and eating. But whiles he was amidst of
- this, he heard suddenly, close anigh him, a strange noise of roaring and
- braying, not very great, but exceeding fierce and terrible, and not like
- to the voice of any beast that he knew. As has been aforesaid, Walter
- was no faint-heart; but what with the weakness of his travail and hunger,
- what with the strangeness of his adventure and his loneliness, his spirit
- failed him; he turned round towards the noise, his knees shook and he
- trembled: this way and that he looked, and then gave a great cry and
- tumbled down in a swoon; for close before him, at his very feet, was the
- dwarf whose image he had seen before, clad in his yellow coat, and
- grinning up at him from his hideous hairy countenance.
- How long he lay there as one dead, he knew not, but when he woke again
- there was the dwarf sitting on his hams close by him. And when he lifted
- up his head, the dwarf sent out that fearful harsh voice again; but this
- time Walter could make out words therein, and knew that the creature
- spoke and said:
- "How now! What art thou? Whence comest? What wantest?"
- Walter sat up and said: "I am a man; I hight Golden Walter; I come from
- Langton; I want victual."
- Said the dwarf, writhing his face grievously, and laughing forsooth: "I
- know it all: I asked thee to see what wise thou wouldst lie. I was sent
- forth to look for thee; and I have brought thee loathsome bread with me,
- such as ye aliens must needs eat: take it!"
- Therewith he drew a loaf from a satchel which he bore, and thrust it
- towards Walter, who took it somewhat doubtfully for all his hunger.
- The dwarf yelled at him: "Art thou dainty, alien? Wouldst thou have
- flesh? Well, give me thy bow and an arrow or two, since thou art lazy-
- sick, and I will get thee a coney or a hare, or a quail maybe. Ah, I
- forgot; thou art dainty, and wilt not eat flesh as I do, blood and all
- together, but must needs half burn it in the fire, or mar it with hot
- water; as they say my Lady does: or as the Wretch, the Thing does; I know
- that, for I have seen It eating."
- "Nay," said Walter, "this sufficeth;" and he fell to eating the bread,
- which was sweet between his teeth. Then when he had eaten a while, for
- hunger compelled him, he said to the dwarf: "But what meanest thou by the
- Wretch and the Thing? And what Lady is thy Lady?"
- The creature let out another wordless roar as of furious anger; and then
- the words came: "It hath a face white and red, like to thine; and hands
- white as thine, yea, but whiter; and the like it is underneath its
- raiment, only whiter still: for I have seen It--yes, I have seen It; ah
- yes and yes and yes."
- And therewith his words ran into gibber and yelling, and he rolled about
- and smote at the grass: but in a while he grew quiet again and sat still,
- and then fell to laughing horribly again, and then said: "But thou, fool,
- wilt think It fair if thou fallest into Its hands, and wilt repent it
- thereafter, as I did. Oh, the mocking and gibes of It, and the tears and
- shrieks of It; and the knife! What! sayest thou of my Lady?--What Lady?
- O alien, what other Lady is there? And what shall I tell thee of her? it
- is like that she made me, as she made the Bear men. But she made not the
- Wretch, the Thing; and she hateth It sorely, as I do. And some day to
- come--"
- Thereat he brake off and fell to wordless yelling a long while, and
- thereafter spake all panting: "Now I have told thee overmuch, and O if my
- Lady come to hear thereof. Now I will go."
- And therewith he took out two more loaves from his wallet, and tossed
- them to Walter, and so turned and went his ways; whiles walking upright,
- as Walter had seen his image on the quay of Langton; whiles bounding and
- rolling like a ball thrown by a lad; whiles scuttling along on all-fours
- like an evil beast, and ever and anon giving forth that harsh and evil
- cry.
- Walter sat a while after he was out of sight, so stricken with horror and
- loathing and a fear of he knew not what, that he might not move. Then he
- plucked up a heart, and looked to his weapons and put the other loaves
- into his scrip.
- Then he arose and went his ways wondering, yea and dreading, what kind of
- creature he should next fall in with. For soothly it seemed to him that
- it would be worse than death if they were all such as this one; and that
- if it were so, he must needs slay and be slain.
- CHAPTER X: WALTER HAPPENETH ON ANOTHER CREATURE IN THE STRANGE LAND
- But as he went on through the fair and sweet land so bright and
- sun-litten, and he now rested and fed, the horror and fear ran off from
- him, and he wandered on merrily, neither did aught befall him save the
- coming of night, when he laid him down under a great spreading oak with
- his drawn sword ready to hand, and fell asleep at once, and woke not till
- the sun was high.
- Then he arose and went on his way again; and the land was no worser than
- yesterday; but even better, it might be; the greensward more flowery, the
- oaks and chestnuts greater. Deer of diverse kinds he saw, and might
- easily have got his meat thereof; but he meddled not with them since he
- had his bread, and was timorous of lighting a fire. Withal he doubted
- little of having some entertainment; and that, might be, nought evil;
- since even that fearful dwarf had been courteous to him after his kind,
- and had done him good and not harm. But of the happening on the Wretch
- and the Thing, whereof the dwarf spake, he was yet somewhat afeard.
- After he had gone a while and whenas the summer morn was at its
- brightest, he saw a little way ahead a grey rock rising up from amidst of
- a ring of oak-trees; so he turned thither straightway; for in this plain-
- land he had seen no rocks heretofore; and as he went he saw that there
- was a fountain gushing out from under the rock, which ran thence in a
- fair little stream. And when he had the rock and the fountain and the
- stream clear before him, lo! a child of Adam sitting beside the fountain
- under the shadow of the rock. He drew a little nigher, and then he saw
- that it was a woman, clad in green like the sward whereon she lay. She
- was playing with the welling out of the water, and she had trussed up her
- sleeves to the shoulder that she might thrust her bare arms therein. Her
- shoes of black leather lay on the grass beside her, and her feet and legs
- yet shone with the brook.
- Belike amidst the splashing and clatter of the water she did not hear him
- drawing nigh, so that he was close to her before she lifted up her face
- and saw him, and he beheld her, that it was the maiden of the thrice-seen
- pageant. She reddened when she saw him, and hastily covered up her legs
- with her gown-skirt, and drew down the sleeves over her arms, but
- otherwise stirred not. As for him, he stood still, striving to speak to
- her; but no word might he bring out, and his heart beat sorely.
- But the maiden spake to him in a clear sweet voice, wherein was now no
- trouble: "Thou art an alien, art thou not? For I have not seen thee
- before."
- "Yea," he said, "I am an alien; wilt thou be good to me?"
- She said: "And why not? I was afraid at first, for I thought it had been
- the King's Son. I looked to see none other; for of goodly men he has
- been the only one here in the land this long while, till thy coming."
- He said: "Didst thou look for my coming at about this time?"
- "O nay," she said; "how might I?"
- Said Walter: "I wot not; but the other man seemed to be looking for me,
- and knew of me, and he brought me bread to eat."
- She looked on him anxiously, and grew somewhat pale, as she said: "What
- other one?"
- Now Walter did not know what the dwarf might be to her, fellow-servant or
- what not, so he would not show his loathing of him; but answered wisely:
- "The little man in the yellow raiment."
- But when she heard that word, she went suddenly very pale, and leaned her
- head aback, and beat the air with her hands; but said presently in a
- faint voice: "I pray thee talk not of that one while I am by, nor even
- think of him, if thou mayest forbear."
- He spake not, and she was a little while before she came to herself
- again; then she opened her eyes, and looked upon Walter and smiled kindly
- on him, as though to ask his pardon for having scared him. Then she rose
- up in her place, and stood before him; and they were nigh together, for
- the stream betwixt them was little.
- But he still looked anxiously upon her and said: "Have I hurt thee? I
- pray thy pardon."
- She looked on him more sweetly still, and said: "O nay; thou wouldst not
- hurt me, thou!"
- Then she blushed very red, and he in like wise; but afterwards she turned
- pale, and laid a hand on her breast, and Walter cried out hastily: "O me!
- I have hurt thee again. Wherein have I done amiss?"
- "In nought, in nought," she said; "but I am troubled, I wot not
- wherefore; some thought hath taken hold of me, and I know it not.
- Mayhappen in a little while I shall know what troubles me. Now I bid
- thee depart from me a little, and I will abide here; and when thou comest
- back, it will either be that I have found it out or not; and in either
- case I will tell thee."
- She spoke earnestly to him; but he said: "How long shall I abide away?"
- Her face was troubled as she answered him: "For no long while."
- He smiled on her and turned away, and went a space to the other side of
- the oak-trees, whence she was still within eyeshot. There he abode until
- the time seemed long to him; but he schooled himself and forbore; for he
- said: Lest she send me away again. So he abided until again the time
- seemed long to him, and she called not to him: but once again he forbore
- to go; then at last he arose, and his heart beat and he trembled, and he
- walked back again speedily, and came to the maiden, who was still
- standing by the rock of the spring, her arms hanging down, her eyes
- downcast. She looked up at him as he drew nigh, and her face changed
- with eagerness as she said: "I am glad thou art come back, though it be
- no long while since thy departure" (sooth to say it was scarce half an
- hour in all). "Nevertheless I have been thinking many things, and
- thereof will I now tell thee."
- He said: "Maiden, there is a river betwixt us, though it be no big one.
- Shall I not stride over, and come to thee, that we may sit down together
- side by side on the green grass?"
- "Nay," she said, "not yet; tarry a while till I have told thee of
- matters. I must now tell thee of my thoughts in order."
- Her colour went and came now, and she plaited the folds of her gown with
- restless fingers. At last she said: "Now the first thing is this; that
- though thou hast seen me first only within this hour, thou hast set thine
- heart upon me to have me for thy speech-friend and thy darling. And if
- this be not so, then is all my speech, yea and all my hope, come to an
- end at once."
- "O yea!" said Walter, "even so it is: but how thou hast found this out I
- wot not; since now for the first time I say it, that thou art indeed my
- love, and my dear and my darling."
- "Hush," she said, "hush! lest the wood have ears, and thy speech is loud:
- abide, and I shall tell thee how I know it. Whether this thy love shall
- outlast the first time that thou holdest my body in thine arms, I wot
- not, nor dost thou. But sore is my hope that it may be so; for I also,
- though it be but scarce an hour since I set eyes on thee, have cast mine
- eyes on thee to have thee for my love and my darling, and my
- speech-friend. And this is how I wot that thou lovest me, my friend. Now
- is all this dear and joyful, and overflows my heart with sweetness. But
- now must I tell thee of the fear and the evil which lieth behind it."
- Then Walter stretched out his hands to her, and cried out: "Yea, yea! But
- whatever evil entangle us, now we both know these two things, to wit,
- that thou lovest me, and I thee, wilt thou not come hither, that I may
- cast mine arms about thee, and kiss thee, if not thy kind lips or thy
- friendly face at all, yet at least thy dear hand: yea, that I may touch
- thy body in some wise?"
- She looked on him steadily, and said softly: "Nay, this above all things
- must not be; and that it may not be is a part of the evil which entangles
- us. But hearken, friend, once again I tell thee that thy voice is over
- loud in this wilderness fruitful of evil. Now I have told thee, indeed,
- of two things whereof we both wot; but next I must needs tell thee of
- things whereof I wot, and thou wottest not. Yet this were better, that
- thou pledge thy word not to touch so much as one of my hands, and that we
- go together a little way hence away from these tumbled stones, and sit
- down upon the open greensward; whereas here is cover if there be spying
- abroad."
- Again, as she spoke, she turned very pale; but Walter said: "Since it
- must be so, I pledge thee my word to thee as I love thee."
- And therewith she knelt down, and did on her foot-gear, and then sprang
- lightly over the rivulet; and then the twain of them went side by side
- some half a furlong thence, and sat down, shadowed by the boughs of a
- slim quicken-tree growing up out of the greensward, whereon for a good
- space around was neither bush nor brake.
- There began the maiden to talk soberly, and said: "This is what I must
- needs say to thee now, that thou art come into a land perilous for any
- one that loveth aught of good; from which, forsooth, I were fain that
- thou wert gotten away safely, even though I should die of longing for
- thee. As for myself, my peril is, in a measure, less than thine; I mean
- the peril of death. But lo, thou, this iron on my foot is token that I
- am a thrall, and thou knowest in what wise thralls must pay for
- transgressions. Furthermore, of what I am, and how I came hither, time
- would fail me to tell; but somewhile, maybe, I shall tell thee. I serve
- an evil mistress, of whom I may say that scarce I wot if she be a woman
- or not; but by some creatures is she accounted for a god, and as a god is
- heried; and surely never god was crueller nor colder than she. Me she
- hateth sorely; yet if she hated me little or nought, small were the gain
- to me if it were her pleasure to deal hardly by me. But as things now
- are, and are like to be, it would not be for her pleasure, but for her
- pain and loss, to make an end of me, therefore, as I said e'en now, my
- mere life is not in peril with her; unless, perchance, some sudden
- passion get the better of her, and she slay me, and repent of it
- thereafter. For so it is, that if it be the least evil of her conditions
- that she is wanton, at least wanton she is to the letter. Many a time
- hath she cast the net for the catching of some goodly young man; and her
- latest prey (save it be thou) is the young man whom I named, when first I
- saw thee, by the name of the King's Son. He is with us yet, and I fear
- him; for of late hath he wearied of her, though it is but plain truth to
- say of her, that she is the wonder of all Beauties of the World. He hath
- wearied of her, I say, and hath cast his eyes upon me, and if I were
- heedless, he would betray me to the uttermost of the wrath of my
- mistress. For needs must I say of him, though he be a goodly man, and
- now fallen into thralldom, that he hath no bowels of compassion; but is a
- dastard, who for an hour's pleasure would undo me, and thereafter would
- stand by smiling and taking my mistress's pardon with good cheer, while
- for me would be no pardon. Seest thou, therefore, how it is with me
- between these two cruel fools? And moreover there are others of whom I
- will not even speak to thee."
- And therewith she put her hands before her face, and wept, and murmured:
- "Who shall deliver me from this death in life?"
- But Walter cried out: "For what else am I come hither, I, I?"
- And it was a near thing that he did not take her in his arms, but he
- remembered his pledged word, and drew aback from her in terror, whereas
- he had an inkling of why she would not suffer it; and he wept with her.
- But suddenly the Maid left weeping, and said in a changed voice: "Friend,
- whereas thou speakest of delivering me, it is more like that I shall
- deliver thee. And now I pray thy pardon for thus grieving thee with my
- grief, and that more especially because thou mayst not solace thy grief
- with kisses and caresses; but so it was, that for once I was smitten by
- the thought of the anguish of this land, and the joy of all the world
- besides."
- Therewith she caught her breath in a half-sob, but refrained her and went
- on: "Now dear friend and darling, take good heed to all that I shall say
- to thee, whereas thou must do after the teaching of my words. And first,
- I deem by the monster having met thee at the gates of the land, and
- refreshed thee, that the Mistress hath looked for thy coming; nay, by thy
- coming hither at all, that she hath cast her net and caught thee. Hast
- thou noted aught that might seem to make this more like?"
- Said Walter: "Three times in full daylight have I seen go past me the
- images of the monster and thee and a glorious lady, even as if ye were
- alive."
- And therewith he told her in few words how it had gone with him since
- that day on the quay at Langton.
- She said: "Then it is no longer perhaps, but certain, that thou art her
- latest catch; and even so I deemed from the first: and, dear friend, this
- is why I have not suffered thee to kiss or caress me, so sore as I longed
- for thee. For the Mistress will have thee for her only, and hath lured
- thee hither for nought else; and she is wise in wizardry (even as some
- deal am I), and wert thou to touch me with hand or mouth on my naked
- flesh, yea, or were it even my raiment, then would she scent the savour
- of thy love upon me, and then, though it may be she would spare thee, she
- would not spare me."
- Then was she silent a little, and seemed very downcast, and Walter held
- his peace from grief and confusion and helplessness; for of wizardry he
- knew nought.
- At last the Maid spake again, and said: "Nevertheless we will not die
- redeless. Now thou must look to this, that from henceforward it is thee,
- and not the King's Son, whom she desireth, and that so much the more that
- she hath not set eyes on thee. Remember this, whatsoever her seeming may
- be to thee. Now, therefore, shall the King's Son be free, though he know
- it not, to cast his love on whomso he will; and, in a way, I also shall
- be free to yeasay him. Though, forsooth, so fulfilled is she with malice
- and spite, that even then she may turn round on me to punish me for doing
- that which she would have me do. Now let me think of it."
- Then was she silent a good while, and spoke at last: "Yea, all things are
- perilous, and a perilous rede I have thought of, whereof I will not tell
- thee as yet; so waste not the short while by asking me. At least the
- worst will be no worse than what shall come if we strive not against it.
- And now, my friend, amongst perils it is growing more and more perilous
- that we twain should be longer together. But I would say one thing yet;
- and maybe another thereafter. Thou hast cast thy love upon one who will
- be true to thee, whatsoever may befall; yet is she a guileful creature,
- and might not help it her life long, and now for thy very sake must needs
- be more guileful now than ever before. And as for me, the guileful, my
- love have I cast upon a lovely man, and one true and simple, and a stout-
- heart; but at such a pinch is he, that if he withstand all temptation,
- his withstanding may belike undo both him and me. Therefore swear we
- both of us, that by both of us shall all guile and all falling away be
- forgiven on the day when we shall be free to love each the other as our
- hearts will."
- Walter cried out: "O love, I swear it indeed! thou art my Hallow, and I
- will swear it as on the relics of a Hallow; on thy hands and thy feet I
- swear it."
- The words seemed to her a dear caress; and she laughed, and blushed, and
- looked full kindly on him; and then her face grew solemn, and she said:
- "On thy life I swear it!"
- Then she said: "Now is there nought for thee to do but to go hence
- straight to the Golden House, which is my Mistress's house, and the only
- house in this land (save one which I may not see), and lieth southward no
- long way. How she will deal with thee, I wot not; but all I have said of
- her and thee and the King's Son is true. Therefore I say to thee, be
- wary and cold at heart, whatsoever outward semblance thou mayst make. If
- thou have to yield thee to her, then yield rather late than early, so as
- to gain time. Yet not so late as to seem shamed in yielding for fear's
- sake. Hold fast to thy life, my friend, for in warding that, thou
- wardest me from grief without remedy. Thou wilt see me ere long; it may
- be to-morrow, it may be some days hence. But forget not, that what I may
- do, that I am doing. Take heed also that thou pay no more heed to me, or
- rather less, than if thou wert meeting a maiden of no account in the
- streets of thine own town. O my love! barren is this first farewell, as
- was our first meeting; but surely shall there be another meeting better
- than the first, and the last farewell may be long and long yet."
- Therewith she stood up, and he knelt before her a little while without
- any word, and then arose and went his ways; but when he had gone a space
- he turned about, and saw her still standing in the same place; she stayed
- a moment when she saw him turn, and then herself turned about.
- So he departed through the fair land, and his heart was full with hope
- and fear as he went.
- CHAPTER XI: WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE MISTRESS
- It was but a little after noon when Walter left the Maid behind: he
- steered south by the sun, as the Maid had bidden him, and went swiftly;
- for, as a good knight wending to battle, the time seemed long to him till
- he should meet the foe.
- So an hour before sunset he saw something white and gay gleaming through
- the boles of the oak-trees, and presently there was clear before him a
- most goodly house builded of white marble, carved all about with knots
- and imagery, and the carven folk were all painted of their lively
- colours, whether it were their raiment or their flesh, and the housings
- wherein they stood all done with gold and fair hues. Gay were the
- windows of the house; and there was a pillared porch before the great
- door, with images betwixt the pillars both of men and beasts: and when
- Walter looked up to the roof of the house, he saw that it gleamed and
- shone; for all the tiles were of yellow metal, which he deemed to be of
- very gold.
- All this he saw as he went, and tarried not to gaze upon it; for he said,
- Belike there will be time for me to look on all this before I die. But
- he said also, that, though the house was not of the greatest, it was
- beyond compare of all houses of the world.
- Now he entered it by the porch, and came into a hall many-pillared, and
- vaulted over, the walls painted with gold and ultramarine, the floor
- dark, and spangled with many colours, and the windows glazed with knots
- and pictures. Midmost thereof was a fountain of gold, whence the water
- ran two ways in gold-lined runnels, spanned twice with little bridges of
- silver. Long was that hall, and now not very light, so that Walter was
- come past the fountain before he saw any folk therein: then he looked up
- toward the high-seat, and himseemed that a great light shone thence, and
- dazzled his eyes; and he went on a little way, and then fell on his
- knees; for there before him on the high-seat sat that wondrous Lady,
- whose lively image had been shown to him thrice before; and she was clad
- in gold and jewels, as he had erst seen her. But now she was not alone;
- for by her side sat a young man, goodly enough, so far as Walter might
- see him, and most richly clad, with a jewelled sword by his side, and a
- chaplet of gems on his head. They held each other by the hand, and
- seemed to be in dear converse together; but they spake softly, so that
- Walter might not hear what they said, till at last the man spake aloud to
- the Lady: "Seest thou not that there is a man in the hall?"
- "Yea," she said, "I see him yonder, kneeling on his knees; let him come
- nigher and give some account of himself."
- So Walter stood up and drew nigh, and stood there, all shamefaced and
- confused, looking on those twain, and wondering at the beauty of the
- Lady. As for the man, who was slim, and black-haired, and
- straight-featured, for all his goodliness Walter accounted him little,
- and nowise deemed him to look chieftain-like.
- Now the Lady spake not to Walter any more than erst; but at last the man
- said: "Why doest thou not kneel as thou didst erewhile?"
- Walter was on the point of giving him back a fierce answer; but the Lady
- spake and said: "Nay, friend, it matters not whether he kneel or stand;
- but he may say, if he will, what he would have of me, and wherefore he is
- come hither."
- Then spake Walter, for as wroth and ashamed as he was: "Lady, I have
- strayed into this land, and have come to thine house as I suppose, and if
- I be not welcome, I may well depart straightway, and seek a way out of
- thy land, if thou wouldst drive me thence, as well as out of thine
- house."
- Thereat the Lady turned and looked on him, and when her eyes met his, he
- felt a pang of fear and desire mingled shoot through his heart. This
- time she spoke to him; but coldly, without either wrath or any thought of
- him: "Newcomer," she said, "I have not bidden thee hither; but here mayst
- thou abide a while if thou wilt; nevertheless, take heed that here is no
- King's Court. There is, forsooth, a folk that serveth me (or, it may be,
- more than one), of whom thou wert best to know nought. Of others I have
- but two servants, whom thou wilt see; and the one is a strange creature,
- who should scare thee or scathe thee with a good will, but of a good will
- shall serve nought save me; the other is a woman, a thrall, of little
- avail, save that, being compelled, she will work woman's service for me,
- but whom none else shall compel . . . Yea, but what is all this to thee;
- or to me that I should tell it to thee? I will not drive thee away; but
- if thine entertainment please thee not, make no plaint thereof to me, but
- depart at thy will. Now is this talk betwixt us overlong, since, as thou
- seest, I and this King's Son are in converse together. Art thou a King's
- Son?"
- "Nay, Lady," said Walter, "I am but of the sons of the merchants."
- "It matters not," she said; "go thy ways into one of the chambers."
- And straightway she fell a-talking to the man who sat beside her
- concerning the singing of the birds beneath her window in the morning;
- and of how she had bathed her that day in a pool of the woodlands, when
- she had been heated with hunting, and so forth; and all as if there had
- been none there save her and the King's Son.
- But Walter departed all ashamed, as though he had been a poor man thrust
- away from a rich kinsman's door; and he said to himself that this woman
- was hateful, and nought love-worthy, and that she was little like to
- tempt him, despite all the fairness of her body.
- No one else he saw in the house that even; he found meat and drink duly
- served on a fair table, and thereafter he came on a goodly bed, and all
- things needful, but no child of Adam to do him service, or bid him
- welcome or warning. Nevertheless he ate, and drank, and slept, and put
- off thought of all these things till the morrow, all the more as he hoped
- to see the kind maiden some time betwixt sunrise and sunset on that new
- day.
- CHAPTER XII: THE WEARING OF FOUR DAYS IN THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD
- He arose betimes, but found no one to greet him, neither was there any
- sound of folk moving within the fair house; so he but broke his fast, and
- then went forth and wandered amongst the trees, till he found him a
- stream to bathe in, and after he had washed the night off him he lay down
- under a tree thereby for a while, but soon turned back toward the house,
- lest perchance the Maid should come thither and he should miss her.
- It should be said that half a bow-shot from the house on that side (i.e.
- due north thereof) was a little hazel-brake, and round about it the trees
- were smaller of kind than the oaks and chestnuts he had passed through
- before, being mostly of birch and quicken-beam and young ash, with small
- wood betwixt them; so now he passed through the thicket, and, coming to
- the edge thereof, beheld the Lady and the King's Son walking together
- hand in hand, full lovingly by seeming.
- He deemed it unmeet to draw back and hide him, so he went forth past them
- toward the house. The King's Son scowled on him as he passed, but the
- Lady, over whose beauteous face flickered the joyous morning smiles, took
- no more heed of him than if he had been one of the trees of the wood. But
- she had been so high and disdainful with him the evening before, that he
- thought little of that. The twain went on, skirting the hazel-copse, and
- he could not choose but turn his eyes on them, so sorely did the Lady's
- beauty draw them. Then befell another thing; for behind them the boughs
- of the hazels parted, and there stood that little evil thing, he or
- another of his kind; for he was quite unclad, save by his fell of yellowy-
- brown hair, and that he was girt with a leathern girdle, wherein was
- stuck an ugly two-edged knife: he stood upright a moment, and cast his
- eyes at Walter and grinned, but not as if he knew him; and scarce could
- Walter say whether it were the one he had seen, or another: then he cast
- himself down on his belly, and fell to creeping through the long grass
- like a serpent, following the footsteps of the Lady and her lover; and
- now, as he crept, Walter deemed, in his loathing, that the creature was
- liker to a ferret than aught else. He crept on marvellous swiftly, and
- was soon clean out of sight. But Walter stood staring after him for a
- while, and then lay down by the copse-side, that he might watch the house
- and the entry thereof; for he thought, now perchance presently will the
- kind maiden come hither to comfort me with a word or two. But hour
- passed by hour, and still she came not; and still he lay there, and
- thought of the Maid, and longed for her kindness and wisdom, till he
- could not refrain his tears, and wept for the lack of her. Then he
- arose, and went and sat in the porch, and was very downcast of mood.
- But as he sat there, back comes the Lady again, the King's Son leading
- her by the hand; they entered the porch, and she passed by him so close
- that the odour of her raiment filled all the air about him, and the
- sleekness of her side nigh touched him, so that he could not fail to note
- that her garments were somewhat disarrayed, and that she kept her right
- hand (for her left the King's Son held) to her bosom to hold the cloth
- together there, whereas the rich raiment had been torn off from her right
- shoulder. As they passed by him, the King's Son once more scowled on
- him, wordless, but even more fiercely than before; and again the Lady
- heeded him nought.
- After they had gone on a while, he entered the hall, and found it empty
- from end to end, and no sound in it save the tinkling of the fountain;
- but there was victual set on the board. He ate and drank thereof to keep
- life lusty within him, and then went out again to the wood-side to watch
- and to long; and the time hung heavy on his hands because of the lack of
- the fair Maiden.
- He was of mind not to go into the house to his rest that night, but to
- sleep under the boughs of the forest. But a little after sunset he saw a
- bright-clad image moving amidst the carven images of the porch, and the
- King's Son came forth and went straight to him, and said: "Thou art to
- enter the house, and go into thy chamber forthwith, and by no means to go
- forth of it betwixt sunset and sunrise. My Lady will not away with thy
- prowling round the house in the night-tide."
- Therewith he turned away, and went into the house again; and Walter
- followed him soberly, remembering how the Maid had bidden him forbear. So
- he went to his chamber, and slept.
- But amidst of the night he awoke and deemed that he heard a voice not far
- off, so he crept out of his bed and peered around, lest, perchance, the
- Maid had come to speak with him; but his chamber was dusk and empty: then
- he went to the window and looked out, and saw the moon shining bright and
- white upon the greensward. And lo! the Lady walking with the King's Son,
- and he clad in thin and wanton raiment, but she in nought else save what
- God had given her of long, crispy yellow hair. Then was Walter ashamed
- to look on her, seeing that there was a man with her, and gat him back to
- his bed; but yet a long while ere he slept again he had the image before
- his eyes of the fair woman on the dewy moonlit grass.
- The next day matters went much the same way, and the next also, save that
- his sorrow was increased, and he sickened sorely of hope deferred. On
- the fourth day also the forenoon wore as erst; but in the heat of the
- afternoon Walter sought to the hazel-copse, and laid him down there hard
- by a little clearing thereof, and slept from very weariness of grief.
- There, after a while, he woke with words still hanging in his ears, and
- he knew at once that it was they twain talking together.
- The King's Son had just done his say, and now it was the Lady beginning
- in her honey-sweet voice, low but strong, wherein even was a little of
- huskiness; she said: "Otto, belike it were well to have a little
- patience, till we find out what the man is, and whence he cometh; it will
- always be easy to rid us of him; it is but a word to our Dwarf-king, and
- it will be done in a few minutes."
- "Patience!" said the King's Son, angrily; "I wot not how to have patience
- with him; for I can see of him that he is rude and violent and
- headstrong, and a low-born wily one. Forsooth, he had patience enough
- with me the other even, when I rated him in, like the dog that he is, and
- he had no manhood to say one word to me. Soothly, as he followed after
- me, I had a mind to turn about and deal him a buffet on the face, to see
- if I could but draw one angry word from him."
- The Lady laughed, and said: "Well, Otto, I know not; that which thou
- deemest dastardy in him may be but prudence and wisdom, and he an alien,
- far from his friends and nigh to his foes. Perchance we shall yet try
- him what he is. Meanwhile, I rede thee try him not with buffets, save he
- be weaponless and with bounden hands; or else I deem that but a little
- while shalt thou be fain of thy blow."
- Now when Walter heard her words and the voice wherein they were said, he
- might not forbear being stirred by them, and to him, all lonely there,
- they seemed friendly.
- But he lay still, and the King's Son answered the Lady and said: "I know
- not what is in thine heart concerning this runagate, that thou shouldst
- bemock me with his valiancy, whereof thou knowest nought. If thou deem
- me unworthy of thee, send me back safe to my father's country; I may look
- to have worship there; yea, and the love of fair women belike."
- Therewith it seemed as if he had put forth his hand to the Lady to caress
- her, for she said: "Nay, lay not thine hand on my shoulder, for to-day
- and now it is not the hand of love, but of pride and folly, and would-be
- mastery. Nay, neither shalt thou rise up and leave me until thy mood is
- softer and kinder to me."
- Then was there silence betwixt them a while, and thereafter the King's
- Son spake in a wheedling voice: "My goddess, I pray thee pardon me! But
- canst thou wonder that I fear thy wearying of me, and am therefore
- peevish and jealous? thou so far above the Queens of the World, and I a
- poor youth that without thee were nothing!"
- She answered nought, and he went on again: "Was it not so, O goddess,
- that this man of the sons of the merchants was little heedful of thee,
- and thy loveliness and thy majesty?"
- She laughed and said: "Maybe he deemed not that he had much to gain of
- us, seeing thee sitting by our side, and whereas we spake to him coldly
- and sternly and disdainfully. Withal, the poor youth was dazzled and
- shamefaced before us; that we could see in the eyes and the mien of him."
- Now this she spoke so kindly and sweetly, that again was Walter all
- stirred thereat; and it came into his mind that it might be she knew he
- was anigh and hearing her, and that she spake as much for him as for the
- King's Son: but that one answered: "Lady, didst thou not see somewhat
- else in his eyes, to wit, that they had but of late looked on some fair
- woman other than thee? As for me, I deem it not so unlike that on the
- way to thine hall he may have fallen in with thy Maid."
- He spoke in a faltering voice, as if shrinking from some storm that might
- come. And forsooth the Lady's voice was changed as she answered, though
- there was no outward heat in it; rather it was sharp and eager and cold
- at once. She said: "Yea, that is not ill thought of; but we may not
- always keep our thrall in mind. If it be so as thou deemest, we shall
- come to know it most like when we next fall in with her; or if she hath
- been shy this time, then shall she pay the heavier for it; for we will
- question her by the Fountain in the Hall as to what betid by the Fountain
- of the Rock."
- Spake the King's Son, faltering yet more: "Lady, were it not better to
- question the man himself? the Maid is stout-hearted, and will not be
- speedily quelled into a true tale; whereas the man I deem of no account."
- "No, no," said the Lady sharply, "it shall not be."
- Then was she silent a while; and then she said: "How if the man should
- prove to be our master?"
- "Nay, our Lady," said the King's Son, "thou art jesting with me; thou and
- thy might and thy wisdom, and all that thy wisdom may command, to be over-
- mastered by a gangrel churl!"
- "But how if I will not have it command, King's Son?" said the Lady. "I
- tell thee I know thine heart, but thou knowest not mine. But be at
- peace! For since thou hast prayed for this woman--nay, not with thy
- words, I wot, but with thy trembling hands, and thine anxious eyes, and
- knitted brow--I say, since thou hast prayed for her so earnestly, she
- shall escape this time. But whether it will be to her gain in the long
- run, I misdoubt me. See thou to that, Otto! thou who hast held me in
- thine arms so oft. And now thou mayest depart if thou wilt."
- It seemed to Walter as if the King's Son were dumbfoundered at her words:
- he answered nought, and presently he rose from the ground, and went his
- ways slowly toward the house. The Lady lay there a little while, and
- then went her ways also; but turned away from the house toward the wood
- at the other end thereof, whereby Walter had first come thither.
- As for Walter, he was confused in mind and shaken in spirit; and withal
- he seemed to see guile and cruel deeds under the talk of those two, and
- waxed wrathful thereat. Yet he said to himself, that nought might he do,
- but was as one bound hand and foot, till he had seen the Maid again.
- CHAPTER XIII: NOW IS THE HUNT UP
- Next morning was he up betimes, but he was cast down and heavy of heart,
- not looking for aught else to betide than had betid those last four days.
- But otherwise it fell out; for when he came down into the hall, there was
- the lady sitting on the high-seat all alone, clad but in a coat of white
- linen; and she turned her head when she heard his footsteps, and looked
- on him, and greeted him, and said: "Come hither, guest."
- So he went and stood before her, and she said: "Though as yet thou hast
- had no welcome here, and no honour, it hath not entered into thine heart
- to flee from us; and to say sooth, that is well for thee, for flee away
- from our hand thou mightest not, nor mightest thou depart without our
- furtherance. But for this we can thee thank, that thou hast abided here
- our bidding and eaten thine heart through the heavy wearing of four days,
- and made no plaint. Yet I cannot deem thee a dastard; thou so well knit
- and shapely of body, so clear-eyed and bold of visage. Wherefore now I
- ask thee, art thou willing to do me service, thereby to earn thy
- guesting?"
- Walter answered her, somewhat faltering at first, for he was astonished
- at the change which had come over her; for now she spoke to him in
- friendly wise, though indeed as a great lady would speak to a young man
- ready to serve her in all honour. Said he: "Lady, I can thank thee
- humbly and heartily in that thou biddest me do thee service; for these
- days past I have loathed the emptiness of the hours, and nought better
- could I ask for than to serve so glorious a Mistress in all honour."
- She frowned somewhat, and said: "Thou shalt not call me Mistress; there
- is but one who so calleth me, that is my thrall; and thou art none such.
- Thou shalt call me Lady, and I shall be well pleased that thou be my
- squire, and for this present thou shalt serve me in the hunting. So get
- thy gear; take thy bow and arrows, and gird thee to thy sword. For in
- this fair land may one find beasts more perilous than be buck or hart. I
- go now to array me; we will depart while the day is yet young; for so
- make we the summer day the fairest."
- He made obeisance to her, and she arose and went to her chamber, and
- Walter dight himself, and then abode her in the porch; and in less than
- an hour she came out of the hall, and Walter's heart beat when he saw
- that the Maid followed her hard at heel, and scarce might he school his
- eyes not to gaze over-eagerly at his dear friend. She was clad even as
- she was before, and was changed in no wise, save that love troubled her
- face when she first beheld him, and she had much ado to master it:
- howbeit the Mistress heeded not the trouble of her, or made no semblance
- of heeding it, till the Maiden's face was all according to its wont.
- But this Walter found strange, that after all that disdain of the Maid's
- thralldom which he had heard of the Mistress, and after all the threats
- against her, now was the Mistress become mild and debonaire to her, as a
- good lady to her good maiden. When Walter bowed the knee to her, she
- turned unto the Maid, and said: "Look thou, my Maid, at this fair new
- Squire that I have gotten! Will not he be valiant in the greenwood? And
- see whether he be well shapen or not. Doth he not touch thine heart,
- when thou thinkest of all the woe, and fear, and trouble of the World
- beyond the Wood, which he hath escaped, to dwell in this little land
- peaceably, and well-beloved both by the Mistress and the Maid? And thou,
- my Squire, look a little at this fair slim Maiden, and say if she
- pleaseth thee not: didst thou deem that we had any thing so fair in this
- lonely place?"
- Frank and kind was the smile on her radiant visage, nor did she seem to
- note any whit the trouble on Walter's face, nor how he strove to keep his
- eyes from the Maid. As for her, she had so wholly mastered her
- countenance, that belike she used her face guilefully, for she stood as
- one humble but happy, with a smile on her face, blushing, and with her
- head hung down as if shamefaced before a goodly young man, a stranger.
- But the Lady looked upon her kindly and said: "Come hither, child, and
- fear not this frank and free young man, who belike feareth thee a little,
- and full certainly feareth me; and yet only after the manner of men."
- And therewith she took the Maid by the hand and drew her to her, and
- pressed her to her bosom, and kissed her cheeks and her lips, and undid
- the lacing of her gown and bared a shoulder of her, and swept away her
- skirt from her feet; and then turned to Walter and said: "Lo thou,
- Squire! is not this a lovely thing to have grown up amongst our rough oak-
- boles? What! art thou looking at the iron ring there? It is nought,
- save a token that she is mine, and that I may not be without her."
- Then she took the Maid by the shoulders and turned her about as in sport,
- and said: "Go thou now, and bring hither the good grey ones; for needs
- must we bring home some venison to-day, whereas this stout warrior may
- not feed on nought save manchets and honey."
- So the Maid went her way, taking care, as Walter deemed, to give no side
- glance to him. But he stood there shamefaced, so confused with all this
- openhearted kindness of the great Lady and with the fresh sight of the
- darling beauty of the Maid, that he went nigh to thinking that all he had
- heard since he had come to the porch of the house that first time was but
- a dream of evil.
- But while he stood pondering these matters, and staring before him as one
- mazed, the Lady laughed out in his face, and touched him on the arm and
- said: "Ah, our Squire, is it so that now thou hast seen my Maid thou
- wouldst with a good will abide behind to talk with her? But call to mind
- thy word pledged to me e'en now! And moreover I tell thee this for thy
- behoof now she is out of ear-shot, that I will above all things take thee
- away to-day: for there be other eyes, and they nought uncomely, that look
- at whiles on my fair-ankled thrall; and who knows but the swords might be
- out if I take not the better heed, and give thee not every whit of thy
- will."
- As she spoke and moved forward, he turned a little, so that now the edge
- of that hazel-coppice was within his eye-shot, and he deemed that once
- more he saw the yellow-brown evil thing crawling forth from the thicket;
- then, turning suddenly on the Lady, he met her eyes, and seemed in one
- moment of time to find a far other look in them than that of frankness
- and kindness; though in a flash they changed back again, and she said
- merrily and sweetly: "So, so, Sir Squire, now art thou awake again, and
- mayest for a little while look on me."
- Now it came into his head, with that look of hers, all that might befall
- him and the Maid if he mastered not his passion, nor did what he might to
- dissemble; so he bent the knee to her, and spoke boldly to her in her own
- vein, and said: "Nay, most gracious of ladies, never would I abide behind
- to-day since thou farest afield. But if my speech be hampered, or mine
- eyes stray, is it not because my mind is confused by thy beauty, and the
- honey of kind words which floweth from thy mouth?"
- She laughed outright at his word, but not disdainfully, and said: "This
- is well spoken, Squire, and even what a squire should say to his liege
- lady, when the sun is up on a fair morning, and she and he and all the
- world are glad."
- She stood quite near him as she spoke, her hand was on his shoulder, and
- her eyes shone and sparkled. Sooth to say, that excusing of his
- confusion was like enough in seeming to the truth; for sure never
- creature was fashioned fairer than she: clad she was for the greenwood as
- the hunting-goddess of the Gentiles, with her green gown gathered unto
- her girdle, and sandals on her feet; a bow in her hand and a quiver at
- her back: she was taller and bigger of fashion than the dear Maiden,
- whiter of flesh, and more glorious, and brighter of hair; as a flower of
- flowers for fairness and fragrance.
- She said: "Thou art verily a fair squire before the hunt is up, and if
- thou be as good in the hunting, all will be better than well, and the
- guest will be welcome. But lo! here cometh our Maid with the good grey
- ones. Go meet her, and we will tarry no longer than for thy taking the
- leash in hand."
- So Walter looked, and saw the Maid coming with two couple of great hounds
- in the leash straining against her as she came along. He ran lightly to
- meet her, wondering if he should have a look, or a half-whisper from her;
- but she let him take the white thongs from her hand, with the same half-
- smile of shamefacedness still set on her face, and, going past him, came
- softly up to the Lady, swaying like a willow-branch in the wind, and
- stood before her, with her arms hanging down by her sides. Then the Lady
- turned to her, and said: "Look to thyself, our Maid, while we are away.
- This fair young man thou needest not to fear indeed, for he is good and
- leal; but what thou shalt do with the King's Son I wot not. He is a hot
- lover forsooth, but a hard man; and whiles evil is his mood, and perilous
- both to thee and me. And if thou do his will, it shall be ill for thee;
- and if thou do it not, take heed of him, and let me, and me only, come
- between his wrath and thee. I may do somewhat for thee. Even yesterday
- he was instant with me to have thee chastised after the manner of
- thralls; but I bade him keep silence of such words, and jeered him and
- mocked him, till he went away from me peevish and in anger. So look to
- it that thou fall not into any trap of his contrivance."
- Then the Maid cast herself at the Mistress's feet, and kissed and
- embraced them; and as she rose up, the Lady laid her hand lightly on her
- head, and then, turning to Walter, cried out: "Now, Squire, let us leave
- all these troubles and wiles and desires behind us, and flit through the
- merry greenwood like the Gentiles of old days."
- And therewith she drew up the laps of her gown till the whiteness of her
- knees was seen, and set off swiftly toward the wood that lay south of the
- house, and Walter followed, marvelling at her goodliness; nor durst he
- cast a look backward to the Maiden, for he knew that she desired him, and
- it was her only that he looked to for his deliverance from this house of
- guile and lies.
- CHAPTER XIV: THE HUNTING OF THE HART
- As they went, they found a change in the land, which grew emptier of big
- and wide-spreading trees, and more beset with thickets. From one of
- these they roused a hart, and Walter let slip his hounds thereafter and
- he and the Lady followed running. Exceeding swift was she, and
- well-breathed withal, so that Walter wondered at her; and eager she was
- in the chase as the very hounds, heeding nothing the scratching of briars
- or the whipping of stiff twigs as she sped on. But for all their eager
- hunting, the quarry outran both dogs and folk, and gat him into a great
- thicket, amidmost whereof was a wide plash of water. Into the thicket
- they followed him, but he took to the water under their eyes and made
- land on the other side; and because of the tangle of underwood, he swam
- across much faster than they might have any hope to come round on him;
- and so were the hunters left undone for that time.
- So the Lady cast herself down on the green grass anigh the water, while
- Walter blew the hounds in and coupled them up; then he turned round to
- her, and lo! she was weeping for despite that they had lost the quarry;
- and again did Walter wonder that so little a matter should raise a
- passion of tears in her. He durst not ask what ailed her, or proffer her
- solace, but was not ill apaid by beholding her loveliness as she lay.
- Presently she raised up her head and turned to Walter, and spake to him
- angrily and said: "Squire, why dost thou stand staring at me like a
- fool?"
- "Yea, Lady," he said; "but the sight of thee maketh me foolish to do
- aught else but to look on thee."
- She said, in a peevish voice: "Tush, Squire, the day is too far spent for
- soft and courtly speeches; what was good there is nought so good here.
- Withal, I know more of thine heart than thou deemest."
- Walter hung down his head and reddened, and she looked on him, and her
- face changed, and she smiled and said, kindly this time: "Look ye,
- Squire, I am hot and weary, and ill-content; but presently it will be
- better with me; for my knees have been telling my shoulders that the cold
- water of this little lake will be sweet and pleasant this summer noonday,
- and that I shall forget my foil when I have taken my pleasure therein.
- Wherefore, go thou with thine hounds without the thicket and there abide
- my coming. And I bid thee look not aback as thou goest, for therein were
- peril to thee: I shall not keep thee tarrying long alone."
- He bowed his head to her, and turned and went his ways. And now, when he
- was a little space away from her, he deemed her indeed a marvel of women,
- and wellnigh forgat all his doubts and fears concerning her, whether she
- were a fair image fashioned out of lies and guile, or it might be but an
- evil thing in the shape of a goodly woman. Forsooth, when he saw her
- caressing the dear and friendly Maid, his heart all turned against her,
- despite what his eyes and his ears told his mind, and she seemed like as
- it were a serpent enfolding the simplicity of the body which he loved.
- But now it was all changed, and he lay on the grass and longed for her
- coming; which was delayed for somewhat more than an hour. Then she came
- back to him, smiling and fresh and cheerful, her green gown let down to
- her heels.
- He sprang up to meet her, and she came close to him, and spake from a
- laughing face: "Squire, hast thou no meat in thy wallet? For, meseemeth,
- I fed thee when thou wert hungry the other day; do thou now the same by
- me."
- He smiled, and louted to her, and took his wallet and brought out thence
- bread and flesh and wine, and spread them all out before her on the green
- grass, and then stood by humbly before her. But she said: "Nay, my
- Squire, sit down by me and eat with me, for to-day are we both hunters
- together."
- So he sat down by her trembling, but neither for awe of her greatness,
- nor for fear and horror of her guile and sorcery.
- A while they sat there together after they had done their meat, and the
- Lady fell a-talking with Walter concerning the parts of the earth, and
- the manners of men, and of his journeyings to and fro.
- At last she said: "Thou hast told me much and answered all my questions
- wisely, and as my good Squire should, and that pleaseth me. But now tell
- me of the city wherein thou wert born and bred; a city whereof thou hast
- hitherto told me nought."
- "Lady," he said, "it is a fair and a great city, and to many it seemeth
- lovely. But I have left it, and now it is nothing to me."
- "Hast thou not kindred there?" said she.
- "Yea," said he, "and foemen withal; and a false woman waylayeth my life
- there."
- "And what was she?" said the Lady.
- Said Walter: "She was but my wife."
- "Was she fair?" said the Lady.
- Walter looked on her a while, and then said: "I was going to say that she
- was wellnigh as fair as thou; but that may scarce be. Yet was she very
- fair. But now, kind and gracious Lady, I will say this word to thee: I
- marvel that thou askest so many things concerning the city of Langton on
- Holm, where I was born, and where are my kindred yet; for meseemeth that
- thou knowest it thyself."
- "I know it, I?" said the Lady.
- "What, then! thou knowest it not?" said Walter.
- Spake the Lady, and some of her old disdain was in her words: "Dost thou
- deem that I wander about the world and its cheaping-steads like one of
- the chap-men? Nay, I dwell in the Wood beyond the World, and nowhere
- else. What hath put this word into thy mouth?"
- He said: "Pardon me, Lady, if I have misdone; but thus it was: Mine own
- eyes beheld thee going down the quays of our city, and thence a
- ship-board, and the ship sailed out of the haven. And first of all went
- a strange dwarf, whom I have seen here, and then thy Maid; and then went
- thy gracious and lovely body."
- The Lady's face changed as he spoke, and she turned red and then pale,
- and set her teeth; but she refrained her, and said: "Squire, I see of
- thee that thou art no liar, nor light of wit, therefore I suppose that
- thou hast verily seen some appearance of me; but never have I been in
- Langton, nor thought thereof, nor known that such a stead there was until
- thou namedst it e'en now. Wherefore, I deem that an enemy hath cast the
- shadow of me on the air of that land."
- "Yea, my Lady," said Walter; "and what enemy mightest thou have to have
- done this?"
- She was slow of answer, but spake at last from a quivering mouth of
- anger: "Knowest thou not the saw, that a man's foes are they of his own
- house? If I find out for a truth who hath done this, the said enemy
- shall have an evil hour with me."
- Again she was silent, and she clenched her hands and strained her limbs
- in the heat of her anger; so that Walter was afraid of her, and all his
- misgivings came back to his heart again, and he repented that he had told
- her so much. But in a little while all that trouble and wrath seemed to
- flow off her, and again was she of good cheer, and kind and sweet to him
- and she said: "But in sooth, however it may be, I thank thee, my Squire
- and friend, for telling me hereof. And surely no wyte do I lay on thee.
- And, moreover, is it not this vision which hath brought thee hither?"
- "So it is, Lady," said he.
- "Then have we to thank it," said the Lady, "and thou art welcome to our
- land."
- And therewith she held out her hand to him, and he took it on his knees
- and kissed it: and then it was as if a red-hot iron had run through his
- heart, and he felt faint, and bowed down his head. But he held her hand
- yet, and kissed it many times, and the wrist and the arm, and knew not
- where he was.
- But she drew a little away from him, and arose and said: "Now is the day
- wearing, and if we are to bear back any venison we must buckle to the
- work. So arise, Squire, and take the hounds and come with me; for not
- far off is a little thicket which mostly harbours foison of deer, great
- and small. Let us come our ways."
- CHAPTER XV: THE SLAYING OF THE QUARRY
- So they walked on quietly thence some half a mile, and ever the Lady
- would have Walter to walk by her side, and not follow a little behind
- her, as was meet for a servant to do; and she touched his hand at whiles
- as she showed him beast and fowl and tree, and the sweetness of her body
- overcame him, so that for a while he thought of nothing save her.
- Now when they were come to the thicket-side, she turned to him and said:
- "Squire, I am no ill woodman, so that thou mayst trust me that we shall
- not be brought to shame the second time; and I shall do sagely; so nock
- an arrow to thy bow, and abide me here, and stir not hence; for I shall
- enter this thicket without the hounds, and arouse the quarry for thee;
- and see that thou be brisk and clean-shooting, and then shalt thou have a
- reward of me."
- Therewith she drew up her skirts through her girdle again, took her bent
- bow in her hand, and drew an arrow out of the quiver, and stepped lightly
- into the thicket, leaving him longing for the sight of her, as he
- hearkened to the tread of her feet on the dry leaves, and the rustling of
- the brake as she thrust through it.
- Thus he stood for a few minutes, and then he heard a kind of gibbering
- cry without words, yet as of a woman, coming from the thicket, and while
- his heart was yet gathering the thought that something had gone amiss, he
- glided swiftly, but with little stir, into the brake.
- He had gone but a little way ere he saw the Lady standing there in a
- narrow clearing, her face pale as death, her knees cleaving together, her
- body swaying and tottering, her hands hanging down, and the bow and arrow
- fallen to the ground; and ten yards before her a great-headed yellow
- creature crouching flat to the earth and slowly drawing nigher.
- He stopped short; one arrow was already notched to the string, and
- another hung loose to the lesser fingers of his string-hand. He raised
- his right hand, and drew and loosed in a twinkling; the shaft flew close
- to the Lady's side, and straightway all the wood rung with a huge roar,
- as the yellow lion turned about to bite at the shaft which had sunk deep
- into him behind the shoulder, as if a bolt out of the heavens had smitten
- him. But straightway had Walter loosed again, and then, throwing down
- his bow, he ran forward with his drawn sword gleaming in his hand, while
- the lion weltered and rolled, but had no might to move forward. Then
- Walter went up to him warily and thrust him through to the heart, and
- leapt aback, lest the beast might yet have life in him to smite; but he
- left his struggling, his huge voice died out, and he lay there moveless
- before the hunter.
- Walter abode a little, facing him, and then turned about to the Lady, and
- she had fallen down in a heap whereas she stood, and lay there all
- huddled up and voiceless. So he knelt down by her, and lifted up her
- head, and bade her arise, for the foe was slain. And after a little she
- stretched out her limbs, and turned about on the grass, and seemed to
- sleep, and the colour came into her face again, and it grew soft and a
- little smiling. Thus she lay awhile, and Walter sat by her watching her,
- till at last she opened her eyes and sat up, and knew him, and smiling on
- him said: "What hath befallen, Squire, that I have slept and dreamed?"
- He answered nothing, till her memory came back to her, and then she
- arose, trembling and pale, and said: "Let us leave this wood, for the
- Enemy is therein."
- And she hastened away before him till they came out at the thicket-side
- whereas the hounds had been left, and they were standing there uneasy and
- whining; so Walter coupled them, while the Lady stayed not, but went away
- swiftly homeward, and Walter followed.
- At last she stayed her swift feet, and turned round on Walter, and said:
- "Squire, come hither."
- So did he, and she said: "I am weary again; let us sit under this quicken-
- tree, and rest us."
- So they sat down, and she sat looking between her knees a while; and at
- last she said: "Why didst thou not bring the lion's hide?"
- He said: "Lady, I will go back and flay the beast, and bring on the
- hide."
- And he arose therewith, but she caught him by the skirts and drew him
- down, and said: "Nay, thou shalt not go; abide with me. Sit down again."
- He did so, and she said: "Thou shalt not go from me; for I am afraid: I
- am not used to looking on the face of death."
- She grew pale as she spoke, and set a hand to her breast, and sat so a
- while without speaking. At last she turned to him smiling, and said:
- "How was it with the aspect of me when I stood before the peril of the
- Enemy?" And she laid a hand upon his.
- "O gracious one," quoth he, "thou wert, as ever, full lovely, but I
- feared for thee."
- She moved not her hand from his, and she said: "Good and true Squire, I
- said ere I entered the thicket e'en now that I would reward thee if thou
- slewest the quarry. He is dead, though thou hast left the skin behind
- upon the carcase. Ask now thy reward, but take time to think what it
- shall be."
- He felt her hand warm upon his, and drew in the sweet odour of her
- mingled with the woodland scents under the hot sun of the afternoon, and
- his heart was clouded with manlike desire of her. And it was a near
- thing but he had spoken, and craved of her the reward of the freedom of
- her Maid, and that he might depart with her into other lands; but as his
- mind wavered betwixt this and that, the Lady, who had been eyeing him
- keenly, drew her hand away from him; and therewith doubt and fear flowed
- into his mind, and he refrained him of speech.
- Then she laughed merrily and said: "The good Squire is shamefaced; he
- feareth a lady more than a lion. Will it be a reward to thee if I bid
- thee to kiss my cheek?"
- Therewith she leaned her face toward him, and he kissed her
- well-favouredly, and then sat gazing on her, wondering what should betide
- to him on the morrow.
- Then she arose and said: "Come, Squire, and let us home; be not abashed,
- there shall be other rewards hereafter."
- So they went their ways quietly; and it was nigh sunset against they
- entered the house again. Walter looked round for the Maid, but beheld
- her not; and the Lady said to him: "I go to my chamber, and now is thy
- service over for this day."
- Then she nodded to him friendly and went her ways.
- CHAPTER XVI: OF THE KING'S SON AND THE MAID
- But as for Walter, he went out of the house again, and fared slowly over
- the woodlawns till he came to another close thicket or brake; he entered
- from mere wantonness, or that he might be the more apart and hidden, so
- as to think over his case. There he lay down under the thick boughs, but
- could not so herd his thoughts that they would dwell steady in looking
- into what might come to him within the next days; rather visions of those
- two women and the monster did but float before him, and fear and desire
- and the hope of life ran to and fro in his mind.
- As he lay thus he heard footsteps drawing near, and he looked between the
- boughs, and though the sun had just set, he could see close by him a man
- and a woman going slowly, and they hand in hand; at first he deemed it
- would be the King's Son and the Lady, but presently he saw that it was
- the King's Son indeed, but that it was the Maid whom he was holding by
- the hand. And now he saw of him that his eyes were bright with desire,
- and of her that she was very pale. Yet when he heard her begin to speak,
- it was in a steady voice that she said: "King's Son, thou hast threatened
- me oft and unkindly, and now thou threatenest me again, and no less
- unkindly. But whatever were thy need herein before, now is there no more
- need; for my Mistress, of whom thou wert weary, is now grown weary of
- thee, and belike will not now reward me for drawing thy love to me, as
- once she would have done; to wit, before the coming of this stranger.
- Therefore I say, since I am but a thrall, poor and helpless, betwixt you
- two mighty ones, I have no choice but to do thy will."
- As she spoke she looked all round about her, as one distraught by the
- anguish of fear. Walter, amidst of his wrath and grief, had wellnigh
- drawn his sword and rushed out of his lair upon the King's Son. But he
- deemed it sure that, so doing, he should undo the Maid altogether, and
- himself also belike, so he refrained him, though it were a hard matter.
- The Maid had stayed her feet now close to where Walter lay, some five
- yards from him only, and he doubted whether she saw him not from where
- she stood. As to the King's Son, he was so intent upon the Maid, and so
- greedy of her beauty, that it was not like that he saw anything.
- Now moreover Walter looked, and deemed that he beheld something through
- the grass and bracken on the other side of those two, an ugly brown and
- yellow body, which, if it were not some beast of the foumart kind, must
- needs be the monstrous dwarf, or one of his kin; and the flesh crept upon
- Walter's bones with the horror of him. But the King's Son spoke unto the
- Maid: "Sweetling, I shall take the gift thou givest me, neither shall I
- threaten thee any more, howbeit thou givest it not very gladly or
- graciously."
- She smiled on him with her lips alone, for her eyes were wandering and
- haggard. "My lord," she said, "is not this the manner of women?"
- "Well," he said, "I say that I will take thy love even so given. Yet let
- me hear again that thou lovest not that vile newcomer, and that thou hast
- not seen him, save this morning along with my Lady. Nay now, thou shalt
- swear it."
- "What shall I swear by?" she said.
- Quoth he, "Thou shalt swear by my body;" and therewith he thrust himself
- close up against her; but she drew her hand from his, and laid it on his
- breast, and said: "I swear it by thy body."
- He smiled on her licorously, and took her by the shoulders, and kissed
- her face many times, and then stood aloof from her, and said: "Now have I
- had hansel: but tell me, when shall I come to thee?"
- She spoke out clearly: "Within three days at furthest; I will do thee to
- wit of the day and the hour to-morrow, or the day after."
- He kissed her once more, and said: "Forget it not, or the threat holds
- good."
- And therewith he turned about and went his ways toward the house; and
- Walter saw the yellow-brown thing creeping after him in the gathering
- dusk.
- As for the Maid, she stood for a while without moving, and looking after
- the King's Son and the creature that followed him. Then she turned about
- to where Walter lay and lightly put aside the boughs, and Walter leapt
- up, and they stood face to face. She said softly but eagerly: "Friend,
- touch me not yet!"
- He spake not, but looked on her sternly. She said: "Thou art angry with
- me?"
- Still he spake not; but she said: "Friend, this at least I will pray
- thee; not to play with life and death; with happiness and misery. Dost
- thou not remember the oath which we swore each to each but a little while
- ago? And dost thou deem that I have changed in these few days? Is thy
- mind concerning thee and me the same as it was? If it be not so, now
- tell me. For now have I the mind to do as if neither thou nor I are
- changed to each other, whoever may have kissed mine unwilling lips, or
- whomsoever thy lips may have kissed. But if thou hast changed, and wilt
- no longer give me thy love, nor crave mine, then shall this steel" (and
- she drew a sharp knife from her girdle) "be for the fool and the dastard
- who hath made thee wroth with me, my friend, and my friend that I deemed
- I had won. And then let come what will come! But if thou be nought
- changed, and the oath yet holds, then, when a little while hath passed,
- may we thrust all evil and guile and grief behind us, and long joy shall
- lie before us, and long life, and all honour in death: if only thou wilt
- do as I bid thee, O my dear, and my friend, and my first friend!"
- He looked on her, and his breast heaved up as all the sweetness of her
- kind love took hold on him, and his face changed, and the tears filled
- his eyes and ran over, and rained down before her, and he stretched out
- his hand toward her.
- Then she said exceeding sweetly: "Now indeed I see that it is well with
- me, yea, and with thee also. A sore pain it is to me, that not even now
- may I take thine hand, and cast mine arms about thee, and kiss the lips
- that love me. But so it has to be. My dear, even so I were fain to
- stand here long before thee, even if we spake no more word to each other;
- but abiding here is perilous; for there is ever an evil spy upon my
- doings, who has now as I deem followed the King's Son to the house, but
- who will return when he has tracked him home thither: so we must sunder.
- But belike there is yet time for a word or two: first, the rede which I
- had thought on for our deliverance is now afoot, though I durst not tell
- thee thereof, nor have time thereto. But this much shall I tell thee,
- that whereas great is the craft of my Mistress in wizardry, yet I also
- have some little craft therein, and this, which she hath not, to change
- the aspect of folk so utterly that they seem other than they verily are;
- yea, so that one may have the aspect of another. Now the next thing is
- this: whatsoever my Mistress may bid thee, do her will therein with no
- more nay-saying than thou deemest may please her. And the next thing:
- wheresoever thou mayst meet me, speak not to me, make no sign to me, even
- when I seem to be all alone, till I stoop down and touch the ring on my
- ankle with my right hand; but if I do so, then stay thee, without fail,
- till I speak. The last thing I will say to thee, dear friend, ere we
- both go our ways, this it is. When we are free, and thou knowest all
- that I have done, I pray thee deem me not evil and wicked, and be not
- wroth with me for my deed; whereas thou wottest well that I am not in
- like plight with other women. I have heard tell that when the knight
- goeth to the war, and hath overcome his foes by the shearing of swords
- and guileful tricks, and hath come back home to his own folk, they praise
- him and bless him, and crown him with flowers, and boast of him before
- God in the minster for his deliverance of friend and folk and city. Why
- shouldst thou be worse to me than this? Now is all said, my dear and my
- friend; farewell, farewell!"
- Therewith she turned and went her ways toward the house in all speed, but
- making somewhat of a compass. And when she was gone, Walter knelt down
- and kissed the place where her feet had been, and arose thereafter, and
- made his way toward the house, he also, but slowly, and staying oft on
- his way.
- CHAPTER XVII: OF THE HOUSE AND THE PLEASANCE IN THE WOOD
- On the morrow morning Walter loitered a while about the house till the
- morn was grown old, and then about noon he took his bow and arrows and
- went into the woods to the northward, to get him some venison. He went
- somewhat far ere he shot him a fawn, and then he sat him down to rest
- under the shade of a great chestnut-tree, for it was not far past the
- hottest of the day. He looked around thence and saw below him a little
- dale with a pleasant stream running through it, and he bethought him of
- bathing therein, so he went down and had his pleasure of the water and
- the willowy banks; for he lay naked a while on the grass by the lip of
- the water, for joy of the flickering shade, and the little breeze that
- ran over the down-long ripples of the stream.
- Then he did on his raiment, and began to come his ways up the bent, but
- had scarce gone three steps ere he saw a woman coming towards him from
- downstream. His heart came into his mouth when he saw her, for she
- stooped and reached down her arm, as if she would lay her hand on her
- ankle, so that at first he deemed it had been the Maid, but at the second
- eye-shot he saw that it was the Mistress. She stood still and looked on
- him, so that he deemed she would have him come to her. So he went to
- meet her, and grew somewhat shamefaced as he drew nigher, and wondered at
- her, for now was she clad but in one garment of some dark grey silky
- stuff, embroidered with, as it were, a garland of flowers about the
- middle, but which was so thin that, as the wind drifted it from side and
- limb, it hid her no more, but for the said garland, than if water were
- running over her: her face was full of smiling joy and content as she
- spake to him in a kind, caressing voice, and said: "I give thee good day,
- good Squire, and well art thou met." And she held out her hand to him.
- He knelt down before her and kissed it, and abode still upon his knees,
- and hanging down his head.
- But she laughed outright, and stooped down to him, and put her hand to
- his arms, and raised him up, and said to him: "What is this, my Squire,
- that thou kneelest to me as to an idol?"
- He said faltering: "I wot not; but perchance thou art an idol; and I fear
- thee."
- "What!" she said, "more than yesterday, whenas thou sawest me afraid?"
- Said he: "Yea, for that now I see thee unhidden, and meseemeth there hath
- been none such since the old days of the Gentiles."
- She said: "Hast thou not yet bethought thee of a gift to crave of me, a
- reward for the slaying of mine enemy, and the saving of me from death?"
- "O my Lady," he said, "even so much would I have done for any other lady,
- or, forsooth, for any poor man; for so my manhood would have bidden me.
- Speak not of gifts to me then. Moreover" (and he reddened therewith, and
- his voice faltered), "didst thou not give me my sweet reward yesterday?
- What more durst I ask?"
- She held her peace awhile, and looked on him keenly; and he reddened
- under her gaze. Then wrath came into her face, and she reddened and knit
- her brows, and spake to him in a voice of anger, and said: "Nay, what is
- this? It is growing in my mind that thou deemest the gift of me
- unworthy! Thou, an alien, an outcast; one endowed with the little wisdom
- of the World without the Wood! And here I stand before thee, all
- glorious in my nakedness, and so fulfilled of wisdom, that I can make
- this wilderness to any whom I love more full of joy than the kingdoms and
- cities of the world--and thou!--Ah, but it is the Enemy that hath done
- this, and made the guileless guileful! Yet will I have the upper hand at
- least, though thou suffer for it, and I suffer for thee."
- Walter stood before her with hanging head, and he put forth his hands as
- if praying off her anger, and pondered what answer he should make; for
- now he feared for himself and the Maid; so at last he looked up to her,
- and said boldly: "Nay, Lady, I know what thy words mean, whereas I
- remember thy first welcome of me. I wot, forsooth, that thou wouldst
- call me base-born, and of no account, and unworthy to touch the hem of
- thy raiment; and that I have been over-bold, and guilty towards thee; and
- doubtless this is sooth, and I have deserved thine anger: but I will not
- ask thee to pardon me, for I have done but what I must needs."
- She looked on him calmly now, and without any wrath, but rather as if she
- would read what was written in his inmost heart. Then her face changed
- into joyousness again, and she smote her palms together, and cried out:
- "This is but foolish talk; for yesterday did I see thy valiancy, and to-
- day I have seen thy goodliness; and I say, that though thou mightest not
- be good enough for a fool woman of the earthly baronage, yet art thou
- good enough for me, the wise and the mighty, and the lovely. And whereas
- thou sayest that I gave thee but disdain when first thou camest to us,
- grudge not against me therefor, because it was done but to prove thee;
- and now thou art proven."
- Then again he knelt down before her, and embraced her knees, and again
- she raised him up, and let her arm hang down over his shoulder, and her
- cheek brush his cheek; and she kissed his mouth and said: "Hereby is all
- forgiven, both thine offence and mine; and now cometh joy and merry
- days."
- Therewith her smiling face grew grave, and she stood before him looking
- stately and gracious and kind at once, and she took his hand and said:
- "Thou mightest deem my chamber in the Golden House of the Wood
- over-queenly, since thou art no masterful man. So now hast thou chosen
- well the place wherein to meet me to-day, for hard by on the other side
- of the stream is a bower of pleasance, which, forsooth, not every one who
- cometh to this land may find; there shall I be to thee as one of the up-
- country damsels of thine own land, and thou shalt not be abashed."
- She sidled up to him as she spoke, and would he, would he not, her sweet
- voice tickled his very soul with pleasure, and she looked aside on him
- happy and well-content.
- So they crossed the stream by the shallow below the pool wherein Walter
- had bathed, and within a little they came upon a tall fence of
- flake-hurdles, and a simple gate therein. The Lady opened the same, and
- they entered thereby into a close all planted as a most fair garden, with
- hedges of rose and woodbine, and with linden-trees a-blossom, and long
- ways of green grass betwixt borders of lilies and clove-gilliflowers, and
- other sweet garland-flowers. And a branch of the stream which they had
- crossed erewhile wandered through that garden; and in the midst was a
- little house built of post and pan, and thatched with yellow straw, as if
- it were new done.
- Then Walter looked this way and that, and wondered at first, and tried to
- think in his mind what should come next, and how matters would go with
- him; but his thought would not dwell steady on any other matter than the
- beauty of the Lady amidst the beauty of the garden; and withal she was
- now grown so sweet and kind, and even somewhat timid and shy with him,
- that scarce did he know whose hand he held, or whose fragrant bosom and
- sleek side went so close to him.
- So they wandered here and there through the waning of the day, and when
- they entered at last into the cool dusk house, then they loved and played
- together, as if they were a pair of lovers guileless, with no fear for
- the morrow, and no seeds of enmity and death sown betwixt them.
- CHAPTER XVIII: THE MAID GIVES WALTER TRYST
- Now, on the morrow, when Walter was awake, he found there was no one
- lying beside him, and the day was no longer very young; so he arose, and
- went through the garden from end to end, and all about, and there was
- none there; and albeit that he dreaded to meet the Lady there, yet was he
- sad at heart and fearful of what might betide. Howsoever, he found the
- gate whereby they had entered yesterday, and he went out into the little
- dale; but when he had gone a step or two he turned about, and could see
- neither garden nor fence, nor any sign of what he had seen thereof but
- lately. He knit his brow and stood still to think of it, and his heart
- grew the heavier thereby; but presently he went his ways and crossed the
- stream, but had scarce come up on to the grass on the further side, ere
- he saw a woman coming to meet him, and at first, full as he was of the
- tide of yesterday and the wondrous garden, deemed that it would be the
- Lady; but the woman stayed her feet, and, stooping, laid a hand on her
- right ankle, and he saw that it was the Maid. He drew anigh to her, and
- saw that she was nought so sad of countenance as the last time she had
- met him, but flushed of cheek and bright-eyed.
- As he came up to her she made a step or two to meet him, holding out her
- two hands, and then refrained her, and said smiling: "Ah, friend, belike
- this shall be the last time that I shall say to thee, touch me not, nay,
- not so much as my hand, or if it were but the hem of my raiment."
- The joy grew up in his heart, and he gazed on her fondly, and said: "Why,
- what hath befallen of late?"
- "O friend," she began, "this hath befallen."
- But as he looked on her, the smile died from her face, and she became
- deadly pale to the very lips; she looked askance to her left side,
- whereas ran the stream; and Walter followed her eyes, and deemed for one
- instant that he saw the misshapen yellow visage of the dwarf peering
- round from a grey rock, but the next there was nothing. Then the Maid,
- though she were as pale as death, went on in a clear, steady, hard voice,
- wherein was no joy or kindness, keeping her face to Walter and her back
- to the stream: "This hath befallen, friend, that there is no longer any
- need to refrain thy love nor mine; therefore I say to thee, come to my
- chamber (and it is the red chamber over against thine, though thou
- knewest it not) an hour before this next midnight, and then thy sorrow
- and mine shall be at an end: and now I must needs depart. Follow me not,
- but remember!"
- And therewith she turned about and fled like the wind down the stream.
- But Walter stood wondering, and knew not what to make of it, whether it
- were for good or ill: for he knew now that she had paled and been seized
- with terror because of the upheaving of the ugly head; and yet she had
- seemed to speak out the very thing she had to say. Howsoever it were, he
- spake aloud to himself: Whatever comes, I will keep tryst with her.
- Then he drew his sword, and turned this way and that, looking all about
- if he might see any sign of the Evil Thing; but nought might his eyes
- behold, save the grass, and the stream, and the bushes of the dale. So
- then, still holding his naked sword in his hand, he clomb the bent out of
- the dale; for that was the only way he knew to the Golden House; and when
- he came to the top, and the summer breeze blew in his face, and he looked
- down a fair green slope beset with goodly oaks and chestnuts, he was
- refreshed with the life of the earth, and he felt the good sword in his
- fist, and knew that there was might and longing in him, and the world
- seemed open unto him.
- So he smiled, if it were somewhat grimly, and sheathed his sword and went
- on toward the house.
- CHAPTER XIX: WALTER GOES TO FETCH HOME THE LION'S HIDE
- He entered the cool dusk through the porch, and, looking down the
- pillared hall, saw beyond the fountain a gleam of gold, and when he came
- past the said fountain he looked up to the high-seat, and lo! the Lady
- sitting there clad in her queenly raiment. She called to him, and he
- came; and she hailed him, and spake graciously and calmly, yet as if she
- knew nought of him save as the leal servant of her, a high Lady.
- "Squire," she said, "we have deemed it meet to have the hide of the
- servant of the Enemy, the lion to wit, whom thou slewest yesterday, for a
- carpet to our feet; wherefore go now, take thy wood-knife, and flay the
- beast, and bring me home his skin. This shall be all thy service for
- this day, so mayst thou do it at thine own leisure, and not weary
- thyself. May good go with thee."
- He bent the knee before her, and she smiled on him graciously, but
- reached out no hand for him to kiss, and heeded him but little.
- Wherefore, in spite of himself, and though he knew somewhat of her guile,
- he could not help marvelling that this should be she who had lain in his
- arms night-long but of late.
- Howso that might be, he took his way toward the thicket where he had
- slain the lion, and came thither by then it was afternoon, at the hottest
- of the day. So he entered therein, and came to the very place whereas
- the Lady had lain, when she fell down before the terror of the lion; and
- there was the mark of her body on the grass where she had lain that
- while, like as it were the form of a hare. But when Walter went on to
- where he had slain that great beast, lo! he was gone, and there was no
- sign of him; but there were Walter's own footprints, and the two shafts
- which he had shot, one feathered red, and one blue. He said at first:
- Belike someone hath been here, and hath had the carcase away. Then he
- laughed in very despite, and said: How may that be, since there are no
- signs of dragging away of so huge a body, and no blood or fur on the
- grass if they had cut him up, and moreover no trampling of feet, as if
- there had been many men at the deed. Then was he all abashed, and again
- laughed in scorn of himself, and said: Forsooth I deemed I had done
- manly; but now forsooth I shot nought, and nought there was before the
- sword of my father's son. And what may I deem now, but that this is a
- land of mere lies, and that there is nought real and alive therein save
- me. Yea, belike even these trees and the green grass will presently
- depart from me, and leave me falling down through the clouds.
- Therewith he turned away, and gat him to the road that led to the Golden
- House, wondering what next should befall him, and going slowly as he
- pondered his case. So came he to that first thicket where they had lost
- their quarry by water; so he entered the same, musing, and bathed him in
- the pool that was therein, after he had wandered about it awhile, and
- found nothing new.
- So again he set him to the homeward road, when the day was now waning,
- and it was near sunset that he was come nigh unto the house, though it
- was hidden from him as then by a low bent that rose before him; and there
- he abode and looked about him.
- Now as he looked, over the said bent came the figure of a woman, who
- stayed on the brow thereof and looked all about her, and then ran swiftly
- down to meet Walter, who saw at once that it was the Maid.
- She made no stay then till she was but three paces from him, and then she
- stooped down and made the sign to him, and then spake to him
- breathlessly, and said: "Hearken! but speak not till I have done: I bade
- thee to-night's meeting because I saw that there was one anigh whom I
- must needs beguile. But by thine oath, and thy love, and all that thou
- art, I adjure thee come not unto me this night as I bade thee! but be
- hidden in the hazel-copse outside the house, as it draws toward midnight,
- and abide me there. Dost thou hearken, and wilt thou? Say yes or no in
- haste, for I may not tarry a moment of time. Who knoweth what is behind
- me?"
- "Yes," said Walter hastily; "but friend and love--"
- "No more," she said; "hope the best;" and turning from him she ran away
- swiftly, not by the way she had come, but sideways, as though to reach
- the house by fetching a compass.
- But Walter went slowly on his way, thinking within himself that now at
- that present moment there was nought for it but to refrain him from
- doing, and to let others do; yet deemed he that it was little manly to be
- as the pawn upon the board, pushed about by the will of others.
- Then, as he went, he bethought him of the Maiden's face and aspect, as
- she came running to him, and stood before him for that minute; and all
- eagerness he saw in her, and sore love of him, and distress of soul, all
- blent together.
- So came he to the brow of the bent whence he could see lying before him,
- scarce more than a bow-shot away, the Golden House now gilded again and
- reddened by the setting sun. And even therewith came a gay image toward
- him, flashing back the level rays from gold and steel and silver; and lo!
- there was come the King's Son. They met presently, and the King's Son
- turned to go beside him, and said merrily: "I give thee good even, my
- Lady's Squire! I owe thee something of courtesy, whereas it is by thy
- means that I shall be made happy, both to-night, and to-morrow, and many
- to-morrows; and sooth it is, that but little courtesy have I done thee
- hitherto."
- His face was full of joy, and the eyes of him shone with gladness. He
- was a goodly man, but to Walter he seemed an ill one; and he hated him so
- much, that he found it no easy matter to answer him; but he refrained
- himself, and said: "I can thee thank, King's Son; and good it is that
- someone is happy in this strange land."
- "Art thou not happy then, Squire of my Lady?" said the other.
- Walter had no mind to show this man his heart, nay, nor even a corner
- thereof; for he deemed him an enemy. So he smiled sweetly and somewhat
- foolishly, as a man luckily in love, and said: "O yea, yea, why should I
- not be so? How might I be otherwise?"
- "Yea then," said the King's Son, "why didst thou say that thou wert glad
- someone is happy? Who is unhappy, deemest thou?" and he looked on him
- keenly.
- Walter answered slowly: "Said I so? I suppose then that I was thinking
- of thee; for when first I saw thee, yea, and afterwards, thou didst seem
- heavy-hearted and ill-content."
- The face of the King's Son cleared at this word, and he said: "Yea, so it
- was; for look you, both ways it was: I was unfree, and I had sown the
- true desire of my heart whereas it waxed not. But now I am on the brink
- and verge of freedom, and presently shall my desire be blossomed. Nay
- now, Squire, I deem thee a good fellow, though it may be somewhat of a
- fool; so I will no more speak riddles to thee. Thus it is: the Maid hath
- promised me all mine asking, and is mine; and in two or three days, by
- her helping also, I shall see the world again."
- Quoth Walter, smiling askance on him: "And the Lady? what shall she say
- to this matter?"
- The King's Son reddened, but smiled falsely enough, and said: "Sir
- Squire, thou knowest enough not to need to ask this. Why should I tell
- thee that she accounteth more of thy little finger than of my whole body?
- Now I tell thee hereof freely; first, because this my fruition of love,
- and my freeing from thralldom, is, in a way, of thy doing. For thou art
- become my supplanter, and hast taken thy place with yonder lovely tyrant.
- Fear not for me! she will let me go. As for thyself, see thou to it! But
- again I tell thee hereof because my heart is light and full of joy, and
- telling thee will pleasure me, and cannot do me any harm. For if thou
- say: How if I carry the tale to my Lady? I answer, thou wilt not. For I
- know that thine heart hath been somewhat set on the jewel that my hand
- holdeth; and thou knowest well on whose head the Lady's wrath would fall,
- and that would be neither thine nor mine."
- "Thou sayest sooth," said Walter; "neither is treason my wont."
- So they walked on silently a while, and then Walter said: "But how if the
- Maiden had nay-said thee; what hadst thou done then?"
- "By the heavens!" said the King's Son fiercely, "she should have paid for
- her nay-say; then would I--" But he broke off, and said quietly, yet
- somewhat doggedly: "Why talk of what might have been? She gave me her
- yea-say pleasantly and sweetly."
- Now Walter knew that the man lied, so he held his peace thereon; but
- presently he said: "When thou art free wilt thou go to thine own land
- again?"
- "Yea," said the King's Son; "she will lead me thither."
- "And wilt thou make her thy lady and queen when thou comest to thy
- father's land?" said Walter.
- The King's Son knit his brow, and said: "When I am in mine own land I may
- do with her what I will; but I look for it that I shall do no otherwise
- with her than that she shall be well-content."
- Then the talk between them dropped, and the King's Son turned off toward
- the wood, singing and joyous; but Walter went soberly toward the house.
- Forsooth he was not greatly cast down, for besides that he knew that the
- King's Son was false, he deemed that under this double tryst lay
- something which was a-doing in his own behalf. Yet was he eager and
- troubled, if not down-hearted, and his soul was cast about betwixt hope
- and fear.
- CHAPTER XX: WALTER IS BIDDEN TO ANOTHER TRYST
- So came he into the pillared hall, and there he found the Lady walking to
- and fro by the high-seat; and when he drew nigh she turned on him, and
- said in a voice rather eager than angry: "What hast thou done, Squire?
- Why art thou come before me?"
- He was abashed, and bowed before her and said: "O gracious Lady, thou
- badest me service, and I have been about it."
- She said: "Tell me then, tell me, what hath betided?"
- "Lady," said he, "when I entered the thicket of thy swooning I found
- there no carcase of the lion, nor any sign of the dragging away of him."
- She looked full in his face for a little, and then went to her chair, and
- sat down therein; and in a little while spake to him in a softer voice,
- and said: "Did I not tell thee that some enemy had done that unto me? and
- lo! now thou seest that so it is."
- Then was she silent again, and knit her brows and set her teeth; and
- thereafter she spake harshly and fiercely: "But I will overcome her, and
- make her days evil, but keep death away from her, that she may die many
- times over; and know all the sickness of the heart, when foes be nigh,
- and friends afar, and there is none to deliver!"
- Her eyes flashed, and her face was dark with anger; but she turned and
- caught Walter's eyes, and the sternness of his face, and she softened at
- once, and said: "But thou! this hath little to do with thee; and now to
- thee I speak: Now cometh even and night. Go thou to thy chamber, and
- there shalt thou find raiment worthy of thee, what thou now art, and what
- thou shalt be; do on the same, and make thyself most goodly, and then
- come thou hither and eat and drink with me, and afterwards depart whither
- thou wilt, till the night has worn to its midmost; and then come thou to
- my chamber, to wit, through the ivory door in the gallery above; and then
- and there shall I tell thee a thing, and it shall be for the weal both of
- thee and of me, but for the grief and woe of the Enemy."
- Therewith she reached her hand to him, and he kissed it, and departed and
- came to his chamber, and found raiment therebefore rich beyond measure;
- and he wondered if any new snare lay therein: yet if there were, he saw
- no way whereby he might escape it, so he did it on, and became as the
- most glorious of kings, and yet lovelier than any king of the world.
- Sithence he went his way into the pillared hall, when it was now night,
- and without the moon was up, and the trees of the wood as still as
- images. But within the hall shone bright with many candles, and the
- fountain glittered in the light of them, as it ran tinkling sweetly into
- the little stream; and the silvern bridges gleamed, and the pillars shone
- all round about.
- And there on the dais was a table dight most royally, and the Lady
- sitting thereat, clad in her most glorious array, and behind her the Maid
- standing humbly, yet clad in precious web of shimmering gold, but with
- feet unshod, and the iron ring upon her ankle.
- So Walter came his ways to the high-seat, and the Lady rose and greeted
- him, and took him by the hands, and kissed him on either cheek, and sat
- him down beside her. So they fell to their meat, and the Maid served
- them; but the Lady took no more heed of her than if she were one of the
- pillars of the hall; but Walter she caressed oft with sweet words, and
- the touch of her hand, making him drink out of her cup and eat out of her
- dish. As to him, he was bashful by seeming, but verily fearful; he took
- the Lady's caresses with what grace he might, and durst not so much as
- glance at her Maid. Long indeed seemed that banquet to him, and longer
- yet endured the weariness of his abiding there, kind to his foe and
- unkind to his friend; for after the banquet they still sat a while, and
- the Lady talked much to Walter about many things of the ways of the
- world, and he answered what he might, distraught as he was with the
- thought of those two trysts which he had to deal with.
- At last spake the Lady and said: "Now must I leave thee for a little, and
- thou wottest where and how we shall meet next; and meanwhile disport thee
- as thou wilt, so that thou weary not thyself, for I love to see thee
- joyous."
- Then she arose stately and grand; but she kissed Walter on the mouth ere
- she turned to go out of the hall. The Maid followed her; but or ever she
- was quite gone, she stooped and made that sign, and looked over her
- shoulder at Walter, as if in entreaty to him, and there was fear and
- anguish in her face; but he nodded his head to her in yea-say of the
- tryst in the hazel-copse, and in a trice she was gone.
- Walter went down the hall, and forth into the early night; but in the
- jaws of the porch he came up against the King's Son, who, gazing at his
- attire glittering with all its gems in the moonlight, laughed out, and
- said: "Now may it be seen how thou art risen in degree above me, whereas
- I am but a king's son, and that a king of a far country; whereas thou art
- a king of kings, or shalt be this night, yea, and of this very country
- wherein we both are."
- Now Walter saw the mock which lay under his words; but he kept back his
- wrath, and answered: "Fair sir, art thou as well contented with thy lot
- as when the sun went down? Hast thou no doubt or fear? Will the Maid
- verily keep tryst with thee, or hath she given thee yea-say but to escape
- thee this time? Or, again, may she not turn to the Lady and appeal to
- her against thee?"
- Now when he had spoken these words, he repented thereof, and feared for
- himself and the Maid, lest he had stirred some misgiving in that young
- man's foolish heart. But the King's Son did but laugh, and answered
- nought but to Walter's last words, and said: "Yea, yea! this word of
- thine showeth how little thou wottest of that which lieth betwixt my
- darling and thine. Doth the lamb appeal from the shepherd to the wolf?
- Even so shall the Maid appeal from me to thy Lady. What! ask thy Lady at
- thy leisure what her wont hath been with her thrall; she shall think it a
- fair tale to tell thee thereof. But thereof is my Maid all whole now by
- reason of her wisdom in leechcraft, or somewhat more. And now I tell
- thee again, that the beforesaid Maid must needs do my will; for if I be
- the deep sea, and I deem not so ill of myself, that other one is the
- devil; as belike thou shalt find out for thyself later on. Yea, all is
- well with me, and more than well."
- And therewith he swung merrily into the litten hall. But Walter went out
- into the moonlit night, and wandered about for an hour or more, and stole
- warily into the hall and thence into his own chamber. There he did off
- that royal array, and did his own raiment upon him; he girt him with
- sword and knife, took his bow and quiver, and stole down and out again,
- even as he had come in. Then he fetched a compass, and came down into
- the hazel-coppice from the north, and lay hidden there while the night
- wore, till he deemed it would lack but little of midnight.
- CHAPTER XXI: WALTER AND THE MAID FLEE FROM THE GOLDEN HOUSE
- There he abode amidst the hazels, hearkening every littlest sound; and
- the sounds were nought but the night voices of the wood, till suddenly
- there burst forth from the house a great wailing cry. Walter's heart
- came up into his mouth, but he had no time to do aught, for following
- hard on the cry came the sound of light feet close to him, the boughs
- were thrust aside, and there was come the Maid, and she but in her white
- coat, and barefoot. And then first he felt the sweetness of her flesh on
- his, for she caught him by the hand and said breathlessly: "Now, now!
- there may yet be time, or even too much, it may be. For the saving of
- breath ask me no questions, but come!"
- He dallied not, but went as she led, and they were lightfoot, both of
- them.
- They went the same way, due south to wit, whereby he had gone a-hunting
- with the Lady; and whiles they ran and whiles they walked; but so fast
- they went, that by grey of the dawn they were come as far as that coppice
- or thicket of the Lion; and still they hastened onward, and but little
- had the Maid spoken, save here and there a word to hearten up Walter, and
- here and there a shy word of endearment. At last the dawn grew into
- early day, and as they came over the brow of a bent, they looked down
- over a plain land whereas the trees grew scatter-meal, and beyond the
- plain rose up the land into long green hills, and over those again were
- blue mountains great and far away.
- Then spake the Maid: "Over yonder lie the outlying mountains of the
- Bears, and through them we needs must pass, to our great peril. Nay,
- friend," she said, as he handled his sword-hilt, "it must be patience and
- wisdom to bring us through, and not the fallow blade of one man, though
- he be a good one. But look! below there runs a stream through the first
- of the plain, and I see nought for it but we must now rest our bodies.
- Moreover I have a tale to tell thee which is burning my heart; for maybe
- there will be a pardon to ask of thee moreover; wherefore I fear thee."
- Quoth Walter: "How may that be?"
- She answered him not, but took his hand and led him down the bent. But
- he said: "Thou sayest, rest; but are we now out of all peril of the
- chase?"
- She said: "I cannot tell till I know what hath befallen her. If she be
- not to hand to set on her trackers, they will scarce happen on us now; if
- it be not for that one."
- And she shuddered, and he felt her hand change as he held it.
- Then she said: "But peril or no peril, needs must we rest; for I tell
- thee again, what I have to say to thee burneth my bosom for fear of thee,
- so that I can go no further until I have told thee."
- Then he said: "I wot not of this Queen and her mightiness and her
- servants. I will ask thereof later. But besides the others, is there
- not the King's Son, he who loves thee so unworthily?"
- She paled somewhat, and said: "As for him, there had been nought for thee
- to fear in him, save his treason: but now shall he neither love nor hate
- any more; he died last midnight."
- "Yea, and how?" said Walter.
- "Nay," she said, "let me tell my tale all together once for all, lest
- thou blame me overmuch. But first we will wash us and comfort us as best
- we may, and then amidst our resting shall the word be said."
- By then were they come down to the stream-side, which ran fair in pools
- and stickles amidst rocks and sandy banks. She said: "There behind the
- great grey rock is my bath, friend; and here is thine; and lo! the
- uprising of the sun!"
- So she went her ways to the said rock, and he bathed him, and washed the
- night off him, and by then he was clad again she came back fresh and
- sweet from the water, and with her lap full of cherries from a wilding
- which overhung her bath. So they sat down together on the green grass
- above the sand, and ate the breakfast of the wilderness: and Walter was
- full of content as he watched her, and beheld her sweetness and her
- loveliness; yet were they, either of them, somewhat shy and shamefaced
- each with the other; so that he did but kiss her hands once and again,
- and though she shrank not from him, yet had she no boldness to cast
- herself into his arms.
- CHAPTER XXII: OF THE DWARF AND THE PARDON
- Now she began to say: "My friend, now shall I tell thee what I have done
- for thee and me; and if thou have a mind to blame me, and punish me, yet
- remember first, that what I have done has been for thee and our hope of
- happy life. Well, I shall tell thee--"
- But therewithal her speech failed her; and, springing up, she faced the
- bent and pointed with her finger, and she all deadly pale, and shaking so
- that she might scarce stand, and might speak no word, though a feeble
- gibbering came from her mouth.
- Walter leapt up and put his arm about her, and looked whitherward she
- pointed, and at first saw nought; and then nought but a brown and yellow
- rock rolling down the bent: and then at last he saw that it was the Evil
- Thing which had met him when first he came into that land; and now it
- stood upright, and he could see that it was clad in a coat of yellow
- samite.
- Then Walter stooped down and gat his bow into his hand, and stood before
- the Maid, while he nocked an arrow. But the monster made ready his
- tackle while Walter was stooping down, and or ever he could loose, his
- bow-string twanged, and an arrow flew forth and grazed the Maid's arm
- above the elbow, so that the blood ran, and the Dwarf gave forth a harsh
- and horrible cry. Then flew Walter's shaft, and true was it aimed, so
- that it smote the monster full on the breast, but fell down from him as
- if he were made of stone. Then the creature set up his horrible cry
- again, and loosed withal, and Walter deemed that he had smitten the Maid,
- for she fell down in a heap behind him. Then waxed Walter wood-wroth,
- and cast down his bow and drew his sword, and strode forward towards the
- bent against the Dwarf. But he roared out again, and there were words in
- his roar, and he said "Fool! thou shalt go free if thou wilt give up the
- Enemy."
- "And who," said Walter, "is the Enemy?"
- Yelled the Dwarf: "She, the pink and white thing lying there; she is not
- dead yet; she is but dying for fear of me. Yea, she hath reason! I
- could have set the shaft in her heart as easily as scratching her arm;
- but I need her body alive, that I may wreak me on her."
- "What wilt thou do with her?" said Walter; for now he had heard that the
- Maid was not slain he had waxed wary again, and stood watching his
- chance.
- The Dwarf yelled so at his last word, that no word came from the noise a
- while, and then he said: "What will I with her? Let me at her, and stand
- by and look on, and then shalt thou have a strange tale to carry off with
- thee. For I will let thee go this while."
- Said Walter: "But what need to wreak thee? What hath she done to thee?"
- "What need! what need!" roared the Dwarf; "have I not told thee that she
- is the Enemy? And thou askest of what she hath done! of what! Fool, she
- is the murderer! she hath slain the Lady that was our Lady, and that made
- us; she whom all we worshipped and adored. O impudent fool!"
- Therewith he nocked and loosed another arrow, which would have smitten
- Walter in the face, but that he lowered his head in the very nick of
- time; then with a great shout he rushed up the bent, and was on the Dwarf
- before he could get his sword out, and leaping aloft dealt the creature a
- stroke amidmost of the crown; and so mightily be smote, that he drave the
- heavy sword right through to the teeth, so that he fell dead straightway.
- Walter stood over him a minute, and when be saw that he moved not, he
- went slowly down to the stream, whereby the Maid yet lay cowering down
- and quivering all over, and covering her face with her hands. Then he
- took her by the wrist and said: "Up, Maiden, up! and tell me this tale of
- the slaying."
- But she shrunk away from him, and looked at him with wild eyes, and said:
- "What hast thou done with him? Is he gone?"
- "He is dead," said Walter; "I have slain him; there lies he with cloven
- skull on the bent-side: unless, forsooth, he vanish away like the lion I
- slew! or else, perchance, he will come to life again! And art thou a lie
- like to the rest of them? let me hear of this slaying."
- She rose up, and stood before him trembling, and said: "O, thou art angry
- with me, and thine anger I cannot bear. Ah, what have I done? Thou hast
- slain one, and I, maybe, the other; and never had we escaped till both
- these twain were dead. Ah! thou dost not know! thou dost not know! O
- me! what shall I do to appease thy wrath!"
- He looked on her, and his heart rose to his mouth at the thought of
- sundering from her. Still he looked on her, and her piteous friendly
- face melted all his heart; he threw down his sword, and took her by the
- shoulders, and kissed her face over and over, and strained her to him, so
- that he felt the sweetness of her bosom. Then he lifted her up like a
- child, and set her down on the green grass, and went down to the water,
- and filled his hat therefrom, and came back to her; then he gave her to
- drink, and bathed her face and her hands, so that the colour came aback
- to the cheeks and lips of her: and she smiled on him and kissed his
- hands, and said: "O now thou art kind to me."
- "Yea," said he, "and true it is that if thou hast slain, I have done no
- less, and if thou hast lied, even so have I; and if thou hast played the
- wanton, as I deem not that thou hast, I full surely have so done. So now
- thou shalt pardon me, and when thy spirit has come back to thee, thou
- shalt tell me thy tale in all friendship, and in all loving-kindness will
- I hearken the same."
- Therewith he knelt before her and kissed her feet. But she said: "Yea,
- yea; what thou willest, that will I do. But first tell me one thing.
- Hast thou buried this horror and hidden him in the earth?"
- He deemed that fear had bewildered her, and that she scarcely yet knew
- how things had gone. But he said: "Fair sweet friend, I have not done it
- as yet; but now will I go and do it, if it seem good to thee."
- "Yea," she said, "but first must thou smite off his head, and lie it by
- his buttocks when he is in the earth; or evil things will happen else.
- This of the burying is no idle matter, I bid thee believe."
- "I doubt it not," said he; "surely such malice as was in this one will be
- hard to slay." And he picked up his sword, and turned to go to the field
- of deed.
- She said: "I must needs go with thee; terror hath so filled my soul, that
- I durst not abide here without thee."
- So they went both together to where the creature lay. The Maid durst not
- look on the dead monster, but Walter noted that he was girt with a big
- ungainly sax; so he drew it from the sheath, and there smote off the
- hideous head of the fiend with his own weapon. Then they twain together
- laboured the earth, she with Walter's sword, he with the ugly sax, till
- they had made a grave deep and wide enough; and therein they thrust the
- creature, and covered him up, weapons and all together.
- CHAPTER XXIII: OF THE PEACEFUL ENDING OF THAT WILD DAY
- Thereafter Walter led the Maid down again, and said to her: "Now,
- sweetling, shall the story be told."
- "Nay, friend," she said, "not here. This place hath been polluted by my
- craven fear, and the horror of the vile wretch, of whom no words may tell
- his vileness. Let us hence and onward. Thou seest I have once more come
- to life again."
- "But," said he, "thou hast been hurt by the Dwarf's arrow."
- She laughed, and said: "Had I never had greater hurt from them than that,
- little had been the tale thereof: yet whereas thou lookest dolorous about
- it, we will speedily heal it."
- Therewith she sought about, and found nigh the stream-side certain herbs;
- and she spake words over them, and bade Walter lay them on the wound,
- which, forsooth, was of the least, and he did so, and bound a strip of
- his shirt about her arm; and then would she set forth. But he said:
- "Thou art all unshod; and but if that be seen to, our journey shall be
- stayed by thy foot-soreness: I may make a shift to fashion thee brogues."
- She said: "I may well go barefoot. And in any case, I entreat thee that
- we tarry here no longer, but go away hence, if it be but for a mile."
- And she looked piteously on him, so that he might not gainsay her.
- So then they crossed the stream, and set forward, when amidst all these
- haps the day was worn to midmorning. But after they had gone a mile,
- they sat them down on a knoll under the shadow of a big thorn-tree,
- within sight of the mountains. Then said Walter: "Now will I cut thee
- the brogues from the skirt of my buff-coat, which shall be well meet for
- such work; and meanwhile shalt thou tell me thy tale."
- "Thou art kind," she said; "but be kinder yet, and abide my tale till we
- have done our day's work. For we were best to make no long delay here;
- because, though thou hast slain the King-dwarf, yet there be others of
- his kindred, who swarm in some parts of the wood as the rabbits in a
- warren. Now true it is that they have but little understanding, less, it
- may be, than the very brute beasts; and that, as I said afore, unless
- they be set on our slot like to hounds, they shall have no inkling of
- where to seek us, yet might they happen upon us by mere misadventure. And
- moreover, friend," quoth she, blushing, "I would beg of thee some little
- respite; for though I scarce fear thy wrath any more, since thou hast
- been so kind to me, yet is there shame in that which I have to tell thee.
- Wherefore, since the fairest of the day is before us, let us use it all
- we may, and, when thou hast done me my new foot-gear, get us gone forward
- again."
- He kissed her kindly and yea-said her asking: he had already fallen to
- work on the leather, and in a while had fashioned her the brogues; so she
- tied them to her feet, and arose with a smile and said: "Now am I hale
- and strong again, what with the rest, and what with thy loving-kindness,
- and thou shalt see how nimble I shall be to leave this land, for as fair
- as it is. Since forsooth a land of lies it is, and of grief to the
- children of Adam."
- So they went their ways thence, and fared nimbly indeed, and made no stay
- till some three hours after noon, when they rested by a thicket-side,
- where the strawberries grew plenty; they ate thereof what they would: and
- from a great oak hard by Walter shot him first one culver, and then
- another, and hung them to his girdle to be for their evening's meal;
- sithence they went forward again, and nought befell them to tell of, till
- they were come, whenas it lacked scarce an hour of sunset, to the banks
- of another river, not right great, but bigger than the last one. There
- the Maid cast herself down and said: "Friend, no further will thy friend
- go this even; nay, to say sooth, she cannot. So now we will eat of thy
- venison, and then shall my tale be, since I may no longer delay it; and
- thereafter shall our slumber be sweet and safe as I deem."
- She spake merrily now, and as one who feared nothing, and Walter was much
- heartened by her words and her voice, and he fell to and made a fire, and
- a woodland oven in the earth, and sithence dighted his fowl, and baked
- them after the manner of wood-men. And they ate, both of them, in all
- love, and in good-liking of life, and were much strengthened by their
- supper. And when they were done, Walter eked his fire, both against the
- chill of the midnight and dawning, and for a guard against wild beasts,
- and by that time night was come, and the moon arisen. Then the Maiden
- drew up to the fire, and turned to Walter and spake.
- CHAPTER XXIV: THE MAID TELLS OF WHAT HAD BEFALLEN HER
- "Now, friend, by the clear of the moon and this firelight will I tell
- what I may and can of my tale. Thus it is: If I be wholly of the race of
- Adam I wot not nor can I tell thee how many years old I may be. For
- there are, as it were, shards or gaps in my life, wherein are but a few
- things dimly remembered, and doubtless many things forgotten. I remember
- well when I was a little child, and right happy, and there were people
- about me whom I loved, and who loved me. It was not in this land; but
- all things were lovely there; the year's beginning, the happy mid-year,
- the year's waning, the year's ending, and then again its beginning. That
- passed away, and then for a while is more than dimness, for nought I
- remember save that I was. Thereafter I remember again, and am a young
- maiden, and I know some things, and long to know more. I am nowise
- happy; I am amongst people who bid me go, and I go; and do this, and I do
- it: none loveth me, none tormenteth me; but I wear my heart in longing
- for I scarce know what. Neither then am I in this land, but in a land
- that I love not, and a house that is big and stately, but nought lovely.
- Then is a dim time again, and sithence a time not right clear; an evil
- time, wherein I am older, wellnigh grown to womanhood. There are a many
- folk about me, and they foul, and greedy, and hard; and my spirit is
- fierce, and my body feeble; and I am set to tasks that I would not do, by
- them that are unwiser than I; and smitten I am by them that are less
- valiant than I; and I know lack, and stripes, and divers misery. But all
- that is now become but a dim picture to me, save that amongst all these
- unfriends is a friend to me; an old woman, who telleth me sweet tales of
- other life, wherein all is high and goodly, or at the least valiant and
- doughty, and she setteth hope in my heart and learneth me, and maketh me
- to know much . . . O much . . . so that at last I am grown wise, and wise
- to be mighty if I durst. Yet am I nought in this land all this while,
- but, as meseemeth, in a great and a foul city."
- "And then, as it were, I fall asleep; and in my sleep is nought, save
- here and there a wild dream, somedeal lovely, somedeal hideous: but of
- this dream is my Mistress a part, and the monster, withal, whose head
- thou didst cleave to-day. But when I am awaken from it, then am I verily
- in this land, and myself, as thou seest me to-day. And the first part of
- my life here is this, that I am in the pillared ball yonder, half-clad
- and with bound hands; and the Dwarf leadeth me to the Lady, and I hear
- his horrible croak as he sayeth: 'Lady, will this one do?' and then the
- sweet voice of the Lady saying: 'This one will do; thou shalt have thy
- reward: now, set thou the token upon her.' Then I remember the Dwarf
- dragging me away, and my heart sinking for fear of him: but for that time
- he did me no more harm than the rivetting upon my leg this iron ring
- which here thou seest."
- "So from that time forward I have lived in this land, and been the thrall
- of the Lady; and I remember my life here day by day, and no part of it
- has fallen into the dimness of dreams. Thereof will I tell thee but
- little: but this I will tell thee, that in spite of my past dreams, or it
- may be because of them, I had not lost the wisdom which the old woman had
- erst learned me, and for more wisdom I longed. Maybe this longing shall
- now make both thee and me happy, but for the passing time it brought me
- grief. For at first my Mistress was indeed wayward with me, but as any
- great lady might be with her bought thrall, whiles caressing me, and
- whiles chastising me, as her mood went; but she seemed not to be cruel of
- malice, or with any set purpose. But so it was (rather little by little
- than by any great sudden uncovering of my intent), that she came to know
- that I also had some of the wisdom whereby she lived her queenly life.
- That was about two years after I was first her thrall, and three weary
- years have gone by since she began to see in me the enemy of her days.
- Now why or wherefore I know not, but it seemeth that it would not avail
- her to slay me outright, or suffer me to die; but nought withheld her
- from piling up griefs and miseries on my head. At last she set her
- servant, the Dwarf, upon me, even he whose head thou clavest to-day. Many
- things I bore from him whereof it were unseemly for my tongue to tell
- before thee; but the time came when he exceeded, and I could bear no
- more; and then I showed him this sharp knife (wherewith I would have
- thrust me through to the heart if thou hadst not pardoned me e'en now),
- and I told him that if he forbore me not, I would slay, not him, but
- myself; and this he might not away with because of the commandment of the
- Lady, who had given him the word that in any case I must be kept living.
- And her hand, withal, fear held somewhat hereafter. Yet was there need
- to me of all my wisdom; for with all this her hatred grew, and whiles
- raged within her so furiously that it overmastered her fear, and at such
- times she would have put me to death if I had not escaped her by some
- turn of my lore."
- "Now further, I shall tell thee that somewhat more than a year ago hither
- to this land came the King's Son, the second goodly man, as thou art the
- third, whom her sorceries have drawn hither since I have dwelt here.
- Forsooth, when he first came, he seemed to us, to me, and yet more to my
- Lady, to be as beautiful as an angel, and sorely she loved him; and he
- her, after his fashion: but he was light-minded, and cold-hearted, and in
- a while he must needs turn his eyes upon me, and offer me his love, which
- was but foul and unkind as it turned out; for when I nay-said him, as
- maybe I had not done save for fear of my Mistress, he had no pity upon
- me, but spared not to lead me into the trap of her wrath, and leave me
- without help, or a good word. But, O friend, in spite of all grief and
- anguish, I learned still, and waxed wise, and wiser, abiding the day of
- my deliverance, which has come, and thou art come."
- Therewith she took Walter's hands and kissed them; but he kissed her
- face, and her tears wet her lips. Then she went on: "But sithence,
- months ago, the Lady began to weary of this dastard, despite of his
- beauty; and then it was thy turn to be swept into her net; I partly guess
- how. For on a day in broad daylight, as I was serving my Mistress in the
- hall, and the Evil Thing, whose head is now cloven, was lying across the
- threshold of the door, as it were a dream fell upon me, though I strove
- to cast it off for fear of chastisement; for the pillared hall wavered,
- and vanished from my sight, and my feet were treading a rough stone
- pavement instead of the marble wonder of the hall, and there was the
- scent of the salt sea and of the tackle of ships, and behind me were tall
- houses, and before me the ships indeed, with their ropes beating and
- their sails flapping and their masts wavering; and in mine ears was the
- hale and how of mariners; things that I had seen and heard in the dimness
- of my life gone by."
- "And there was I, and the Dwarf before me, and the Lady after me, going
- over the gangway aboard of a tall ship, and she gathered way and was
- gotten out of the haven, and straightway I saw the mariners cast abroad
- their ancient."
- Quoth Walter: "What then! Sawest thou the blazon thereon, of a wolf-like
- beast ramping up against a maiden? And that might well have been thou."
- She said: "Yea, so it was; but refrain thee, that I may tell on my tale!
- The ship and the sea vanished away, but I was not back in the hall of the
- Golden House; and again were we three in the street of the self-same town
- which we had but just left; but somewhat dim was my vision thereof, and I
- saw little save the door of a goodly house before me, and speedily it
- died out, and we were again in the pillared hall, wherein my thralldom
- was made manifest."
- "Maiden," said Walter, "one question I would ask thee; to wit, didst thou
- see me on the quay by the ships?"
- "Nay," she said, "there were many folk about, but they were all as images
- of the aliens to me. Now hearken further: three months thereafter came
- the dream upon me again, when we were all three together in the Pillared
- Hall; and again was the vision somewhat dim. Once more we were in the
- street of a busy town, but all unlike to that other one, and there were
- men standing together on our right hands by the door of a house."
- "Yea, yea," quoth Walter; "and, forsooth, one of them was who but I."
- "Refrain thee, beloved!" she said; "for my tale draweth to its ending,
- and I would have thee hearken heedfully: for maybe thou shalt once again
- deem my deed past pardon. Some twenty days after this last dream, I had
- some leisure from my Mistress's service, so I went to disport me by the
- Well of the Oak-tree (or forsooth she might have set in my mind the
- thought of going there, that I might meet thee and give her some occasion
- against me); and I sat thereby, nowise loving the earth, but sick at
- heart, because of late the King's Son had been more than ever instant
- with me to yield him my body, threatening me else with casting me into
- all that the worst could do to me of torments and shames day by day. I
- say my heart failed me, and I was wellnigh brought to the point of yea-
- saying his desires, that I might take the chance of something befalling
- me that were less bad than the worst. But here must I tell thee a thing,
- and pray thee to take it to heart. This, more than aught else, had given
- me strength to nay-say that dastard, that my wisdom both hath been, and
- now is, the wisdom of a wise maid, and not of a woman, and all the might
- thereof shall I lose with my maidenhead. Evil wilt thou think of me
- then, for all I was tried so sore, that I was at point to cast it all
- away, so wretchedly as I shrank from the horror of the Lady's wrath."
- "But there as I sat pondering these things, I saw a man coming, and
- thought no otherwise thereof but that it was the King's Son, till I saw
- the stranger drawing near, and his golden hair, and his grey eyes; and
- then I heard his voice, and his kindness pierced my heart, and I knew
- that my friend had come to see me; and O, friend, these tears are for the
- sweetness of that past hour!"
- Said Walter: "I came to see my friend, I also. Now have I noted what
- thou badest me; and I will forbear all as thou commandest me, till we be
- safe out of the desert and far away from all evil things; but wilt thou
- ban me from all caresses?"
- She laughed amidst of her tears, and said: "O, nay, poor lad, if thou
- wilt be but wise."
- Then she leaned toward him, and took his face betwixt her hands and
- kissed him oft, and the tears started in his eyes for love and pity of
- her.
- Then she said: "Alas, friend! even yet mayst thou doom me guilty, and all
- thy love may turn away from me, when I have told thee all that I have
- done for the sake of thee and me. O, if then there might be some
- chastisement for the guilty woman, and not mere sundering!"
- "Fear nothing, sweetling," said he; "for indeed I deem that already I
- know partly what thou hast done."
- She sighed, and said: "I will tell thee next, that I banned thy kissing
- and caressing of me till to-day because I knew that my Mistress would
- surely know if a man, if thou, hadst so much as touched a finger of mine
- in love, it was to try me herein that on the morning of the hunting she
- kissed and embraced me, till I almost died thereof, and showed thee my
- shoulder and my limbs; and to try thee withal, if thine eye should
- glister or thy cheek flush thereat; for indeed she was raging in jealousy
- of thee. Next, my friend, even whiles we were talking together at the
- Well of the Rock, I was pondering on what we should do to escape from
- this land of lies. Maybe thou wilt say: Why didst thou not take my hand
- and flee with me as we fled to-day? Friend, it is most true, that were
- she not dead we had not escaped thus far. For her trackers would have
- followed us, set on by her, and brought us back to an evil fate.
- Therefore I tell thee that from the first I did plot the death of those
- two, the Dwarf and the Mistress. For no otherwise mightest thou live, or
- I escape from death in life. But as to the dastard who threatened me
- with a thrall's pains, I heeded him nought to live or die, for well I
- knew that thy valiant sword, yea, or thy bare hands, would speedily tame
- him. Now first I knew that I must make a show of yielding to the King's
- Son; and somewhat how I did therein, thou knowest. But no night and no
- time did I give him to bed me, till after I had met thee as thou wentest
- to the Golden House, before the adventure of fetching the lion's skin;
- and up to that time I had scarce known what to do, save ever to bid thee,
- with sore grief and pain, to yield thee to the wicked woman's desire. But
- as we spake together there by the stream, and I saw that the Evil Thing
- (whose head thou clavest e'en now) was spying on us, then amidst the
- sickness of terror which ever came over me whensoever I thought of him,
- and much more when I saw him (ah! he is dead now!), it came flashing into
- my mind how I might destroy my enemy. Therefore I made the Dwarf my
- messenger to her, by bidding thee to my bed in such wise that he might
- hear it. And wot thou well, that he speedily carried her the tidings.
- Meanwhile I hastened to lie to the King's Son, and all privily bade him
- come to me and not thee. And thereafter, by dint of waiting and
- watching, and taking the only chance that there was, I met thee as thou
- camest back from fetching the skin of the lion that never was, and gave
- thee that warning, or else had we been undone indeed."
- Said Walter: "Was the lion of her making or of thine then?"
- She said: "Of hers: why should I deal with such a matter?"
- "Yea," said Walter, "but she verily swooned, and she was verily wroth
- with the Enemy."
- The Maid smiled, and said: "If her lie was not like very sooth, then had
- she not been the crafts-master that I knew her: one may lie otherwise
- than with the tongue alone: yet indeed her wrath against the Enemy was
- nought feigned; for the Enemy was even I, and in these latter days never
- did her wrath leave me. But to go on with my tale."
- "Now doubt thou not, that, when thou camest into the hall yester eve, the
- Mistress knew of thy counterfeit tryst with me, and meant nought but
- death for thee; yet first would she have thee in her arms again,
- therefore did she make much of thee at table (and that was partly for my
- torment also), and therefore did she make that tryst with thee, and
- deemed doubtless that thou wouldst not dare to forgo it, even if thou
- shouldst go to me thereafter."
- "Now I had trained that dastard to me as I have told thee, but I gave him
- a sleepy draught, so that when I came to the bed he might not move toward
- me nor open his eyes: but I lay down beside him, so that the Lady might
- know that my body had been there; for well had she wotted if it had not.
- Then as there I lay I cast over him thy shape, so that none might have
- known but that thou wert lying by my side, and there, trembling, I abode
- what should befall. Thus I passed through the hour whenas thou shouldest
- have been at her chamber, and the time of my tryst with thee was come as
- the Mistress would be deeming; so that I looked for her speedily, and my
- heart wellnigh failed me for fear of her cruelty."
- "Presently then I heard a stirring in her chamber, and I slipped from out
- the bed, and hid me behind the hangings, and was like to die for fear of
- her; and lo, presently she came stealing in softly, holding a lamp in one
- hand and a knife in the other. And I tell thee of a sooth that I also
- had a sharp knife in my hand to defend my life if need were. She held
- the lamp up above her head before she drew near to the bed-side, and I
- heard her mutter: 'She is not there then! but she shall be taken.' Then
- she went up to the bed and stooped over it, and laid her hand on the
- place where I had lain; and therewith her eyes turned to that false image
- of thee lying there, and she fell a-trembling and shaking, and the lamp
- fell to the ground and was quenched (but there was bright moonlight in
- the room, and still I could see what betid). But she uttered a noise
- like the low roar of a wild beast, and I saw her arm and hand rise up,
- and the flashing of the steel beneath the hand, and then down came the
- hand and the steel, and I went nigh to swooning lest perchance I had
- wrought over well, and thine image were thy very self. The dastard died
- without a groan: why should I lament him? I cannot. But the Lady drew
- him toward her, and snatched the clothes from off his shoulders and
- breast, and fell a-gibbering sounds mostly without meaning, but broken
- here and there with words. Then I heard her say: 'I shall forget; I
- shall forget; and the new days shall come.' Then was there silence of
- her a little, and thereafter she cried out in a terrible voice: 'O no,
- no, no! I cannot forget; I cannot forget;' and she raised a great
- wailing cry that filled all the night with horror (didst thou not hear
- it?), and caught up the knife from the bed and thrust it into her breast,
- and fell down a dead heap over the bed and on to the man whom she had
- slain. And then I thought of thee, and joy smote across my terror; how
- shall I gainsay it? And I fled away to thee, and I took thine hands in
- mine, thy dear hands, and we fled away together. Shall we be still
- together?"
- He spoke slowly, and touched her not, and she, forbearing all sobbing and
- weeping, sat looking wistfully on him. He said: "I think thou hast told
- me all; and whether thy guile slew her, or her own evil heart, she was
- slain last night who lay in mine arms the night before. It was ill, and
- ill done of me, for I loved not her, but thee, and I wished for her death
- that I might be with thee. Thou wottest this, and still thou lovest me,
- it may be overweeningly. What have I to say then? If there be any guilt
- of guile, I also was in the guile; and if there be any guilt of murder, I
- also was in the murder. Thus we say to each other; and to God and his
- Hallows we say: 'We two have conspired to slay the woman who tormented
- one of us, and would have slain the other; and if we have done amiss
- therein, then shall we two together pay the penalty; for in this have we
- done as one body and one soul.'"
- Therewith he put his arms about her and kissed her, but soberly and
- friendly, as if he would comfort her. And thereafter he said to her:
- "Maybe to-morrow, in the sunlight, I will ask thee of this woman, what
- she verily was; but now let her be. And thou, thou art over-wearied, and
- I bid thee sleep."
- So he went about and gathered of bracken a great heap for her bed, and
- did his coat thereover, and led her thereto, and she lay down meekly, and
- smiled and crossed her arms over her bosom, and presently fell asleep.
- But as for him, he watched by the fire-side till dawn began to glimmer,
- and then he also laid him down and slept.
- CHAPTER XXV: OF THE TRIUMPHANT SUMMER ARRAY OF THE MAID
- When the day was bright Walter arose, and met the Maid coming from the
- river-bank, fresh and rosy from the water. She paled a little when they
- met face to face, and she shrank from him shyly. But he took her hand
- and kissed her frankly; and the two were glad, and had no need to tell
- each other of their joy, though much else they deemed they had to say,
- could they have found words thereto.
- So they came to their fire and sat down, and fell to breakfast; and ere
- they were done, the Maid said: "My Master, thou seest we be come nigh
- unto the hill-country, and to-day about sunset, belike, we shall come
- into the Land of the Bear-folk; and both it is, that there is peril if we
- fall into their hands, and that we may scarce escape them. Yet I deem
- that we may deal with the peril by wisdom."
- "What is the peril?" said Walter; "I mean, what is the worst of it?"
- Said the Maid: "To be offered up in sacrifice to their God."
- "But if we escape death at their hands, what then?" said Walter.
- "One of two things," said she; "the first that they shall take us into
- their tribe."
- "And will they sunder us in that case?" said Walter.
- "Nay," said she.
- Walter laughed and said: "Therein is little harm then. But what is the
- other chance?"
- Said she: "That we leave them with their goodwill, and come back to one
- of the lands of Christendom."
- Said Walter: "I am not all so sure that this is the better of the two
- choices, though, forsooth, thou seemest to think so. But tell me now,
- what like is their God, that they should offer up new-comers to him?"
- "Their God is a woman," she said, "and the Mother of their nation and
- tribes (or so they deem) before the days when they had chieftains and
- Lords of Battle."
- "That will be long ago," said he; "how then may she be living now?"
- Said the Maid: "Doubtless that woman of yore agone is dead this many and
- many a year; but they take to them still a new woman, one after other, as
- they may happen on them, to be in the stead of the Ancient Mother. And
- to tell thee the very truth right out, she that lieth dead in the
- Pillared Hall was even the last of these; and now, if they knew it, they
- lack a God. This shall we tell them."
- "Yea, yea!" said Walter, "a goodly welcome shall we have of them then, if
- we come amongst them with our hands red with the blood of their God!"
- She smiled on him and said: "If I come amongst them with the tidings that
- I have slain her, and they trow therein, without doubt they shall make me
- Lady and Goddess in her stead."
- "This is a strange word," said Walter "but if so they do, how shall that
- further us in reaching the kindreds of the world, and the folk of Holy
- Church?"
- She laughed outright, so joyous was she grown, now that she knew that his
- life was yet to be a part of hers. "Sweetheart," she said, "now I see
- that thou desirest wholly what I desire; yet in any case, abiding with
- them would be living and not dying, even as thou hadst it e'en now. But,
- forsooth, they will not hinder our departure if they deem me their God;
- they do not look for it, nor desire it, that their God should dwell with
- them daily. Have no fear." Then she laughed again, and said: "What!
- thou lookest on me and deemest me to be but a sorry image of a goddess;
- and me with my scanty coat and bare arms and naked feet! But wait! I
- know well how to array me when the time cometh. Thou shalt see it! And
- now, my Master, were it not meet that we took to the road?"
- So they arose, and found a ford of the river that took the Maid but to
- the knee, and so set forth up the greensward of the slopes whereas there
- were but few trees; so went they faring toward the hill-country.
- At the last they were come to the feet of the very hills, and in the
- hollows betwixt the buttresses of them grew nut and berry trees, and the
- greensward round about them was both thick and much flowery. There they
- stayed them and dined, whereas Walter had shot a hare by the way, and
- they had found a bubbling spring under a grey stone in a bight of the
- coppice, wherein now the birds were singing their best.
- When they had eaten and had rested somewhat, the Maid arose and said:
- "Now shall the Queen array herself, and seem like a very goddess."
- Then she fell to work, while Walter looked on; and she made a garland for
- her head of eglantine where the roses were the fairest; and with mingled
- flowers of the summer she wreathed her middle about, and let the garland
- of them hang down to below her knees; and knots of the flowers she made
- fast to the skirts of her coat, and did them for arm-rings about her
- arms, and for anklets and sandals for her feet. Then she set a garland
- about Walter's head, and then stood a little off from him and set her
- feet together, and lifted up her arms, and said: "Lo now! am I not as
- like to the Mother of Summer as if I were clad in silk and gold? and even
- so shall I be deemed by the folk of the Bear. Come now, thou shalt see
- how all shall be well."
- She laughed joyously; but he might scarce laugh for pity of his love.
- Then they set forth again, and began to climb the hills, and the hours
- wore as they went in sweet converse; till at last Walter looked on the
- Maid, and smiled on her, and said: "One thing I would say to thee, lovely
- friend, to wit: wert thou clad in silk and gold, thy stately raiment
- might well suffer a few stains, or here and there a rent maybe; but
- stately would it be still when the folk of the Bear should come up
- against thee. But as to this flowery array of thine, in a few hours it
- shall be all faded and nought. Nay, even now, as I look on thee, the
- meadow-sweet that hangeth from thy girdle-stead has waxen dull, and
- welted; and the blossoming eyebright that is for a hem to the little
- white coat of thee is already forgetting how to be bright and blue. What
- sayest thou then?"
- She laughed at his word, and stood still, and looked back over her
- shoulder, while with her fingers she dealt with the flowers about her
- side like to a bird preening his feathers. Then she said: "Is it verily
- so as thou sayest? Look again!"
- So he looked, and wondered; for lo! beneath his eyes the spires of the
- meadow-sweet grew crisp and clear again, the eyebright blossoms shone
- once more over the whiteness of her legs; the eglantine roses opened, and
- all was as fresh and bright as if it were still growing on its own roots.
- He wondered, and was even somedeal aghast; but she said: "Dear friend, be
- not troubled! did I not tell thee that I am wise in hidden lore? But in
- my wisdom shall be no longer any scathe to any man. And again, this my
- wisdom, as I told thee erst, shall end on the day whereon I am made all
- happy. And it is thou that shall wield it all, my Master. Yet must my
- wisdom needs endure for a little season yet. Let us on then, boldly and
- happily."
- CHAPTER XXVI: THEY COME TO THE FOLK OF THE BEARS
- On they went, and before long they were come up on to the down-country,
- where was scarce a tree, save gnarled and knotty thorn-bushes here and
- there, but nought else higher than the whin. And here on these upper
- lands they saw that the pastures were much burned with the drought,
- albeit summer was not worn old. Now they went making due south toward
- the mountains, whose heads they saw from time to time rising deep blue
- over the bleak greyness of the down-land ridges. And so they went, till
- at last, hard on sunset, after they had climbed long over a high bent,
- they came to the brow thereof, and, looking down, beheld new tidings.
- There was a wide valley below them, greener than the downs which they had
- come over, and greener yet amidmost, from the watering of a stream which,
- all beset with willows, wound about the bottom. Sheep and neat were
- pasturing about the dale, and moreover a long line of smoke was going up
- straight into the windless heavens from the midst of a ring of little
- round houses built of turfs, and thatched with reed. And beyond that,
- toward an eastward-lying bight of the dale, they could see what looked
- like to a doom-ring of big stones, though there were no rocky places in
- that land. About the cooking-fire amidst of the houses, and here and
- there otherwhere, they saw, standing or going to and fro, huge figures of
- men and women, with children playing about betwixt them.
- They stood and gazed down at it for a minute or two, and though all were
- at peace there, yet to Walter, at least, it seemed strange and awful. He
- spake softly, as though he would not have his voice reach those men,
- though they were, forsooth, out of earshot of anything save a shout: "Are
- these then the children of the Bear? What shall we do now?"
- She said: "Yea, of the Bear they be, though there be other folks of them
- far and far away to the northward and eastward, near to the borders of
- the sea. And as to what we shall do, let us go down at once, and
- peacefully. Indeed, by now there will be no escape from them; for lo
- you! they have seen us."
- Forsooth, some three or four of the big men had turned them toward the
- bent whereon stood the twain, and were hailing them in huge, rough
- voices, wherein, howsoever, seemed to be no anger or threat. So the Maid
- took Walter by the hand, and thus they went down quietly, and the Bear-
- folk, seeing them, stood all together, facing them, to abide their
- coming. Walter saw of them, that though they were very tall and bigly
- made, they were not so far above the stature of men as to be marvels. The
- carles were long-haired, and shaggy of beard, and their hair all red or
- tawny; their skins, where their naked flesh showed, were burned brown
- with sun and weather, but to a fair and pleasant brown, nought like to
- blackamoors. The queans were comely and well-eyed; nor was there
- anything of fierce or evil-looking about either the carles or the queans,
- but somewhat grave and solemn of aspect were they. Clad were they all,
- saving the young men-children, but somewhat scantily, and in nought save
- sheep-skins or deer-skins.
- For weapons they saw amongst them clubs, and spears headed with bone or
- flint, and ugly axes of big flints set in wooden handles; nor was there,
- as far as they could see, either now or afterward, any bow amongst them.
- But some of the young men seemed to have slings done about their
- shoulders.
- Now when they were come but three fathom from them, the Maid lifted up
- her voice, and spake clearly and sweetly: "Hail, ye folk of the Bears! we
- have come amongst you, and that for your good and not for your hurt:
- wherefore we would know if we be welcome."
- There was an old man who stood foremost in the midst, clad in a mantle of
- deer-skins worked very goodly, and with a gold ring on his arm, and a
- chaplet of blue stones on his head, and he spake: "Little are ye, but so
- goodly, that if ye were but bigger, we should deem that ye were come from
- the Gods' House. Yet have I heard, that how mighty soever may the Gods
- be, and chiefly our God, they be at whiles nought so bigly made as we of
- the Bears. How this may be, I wot not. But if ye be not of the Gods or
- their kindred, then are ye mere aliens; and we know not what to do with
- aliens, save we meet them in battle, or give them to the God, or save we
- make them children of the Bear. But yet again, ye may be messengers of
- some folk who would bind friendship and alliance with us: in which case
- ye shall at the least depart in peace, and whiles ye are with us shall be
- our guests in all good cheer. Now, therefore, we bid you declare the
- matter unto us."
- Then spake the Maid: "Father, it were easy for us to declare what we be
- unto you here present. But, meseemeth, ye who be gathered round the fire
- here this evening are less than the whole tale of the children of the
- Bear."
- "So it is, Maiden," said the elder, "that many more children hath the
- Bear."
- "This then we bid you," said the Maid, "that ye send the tokens round and
- gather your people to you, and when they be assembled in the Doom-ring,
- then shall we put our errand before you; and according to that, shall ye
- deal with us."
- "Thou hast spoken well," said the elder; "and even so had we bidden you
- ourselves. To-morrow, before noon, shall ye stand in the Doom-ring in
- this Dale, and speak with the children of the Bear."
- Therewith he turned to his own folk and called out something, whereof
- those twain knew not the meaning; and there came to him, one after
- another, six young men, unto each of whom he gave a thing from out his
- pouch, but what it was Walter might not see, save that it was little and
- of small account: to each, also, he spake a word or two, and straight
- they set off running, one after the other, turning toward the bent which
- was over against that whereby the twain had come into the Dale, and were
- soon out of sight in the gathering dusk.
- Then the elder turned him again to Walter and the Maid, and spake: "Man
- and woman, whatsoever ye may be, or whatsoever may abide you to-morrow,
- to-night, ye are welcome guests to us; so we bid you come eat and drink
- at our fire."
- So they sat all together upon the grass round about the embers of the
- fire, and ate curds and cheese, and drank milk in abundance; and as the
- night grew on them they quickened the fire, that they might have light.
- This wild folk talked merrily amongst themselves, with laughter enough
- and friendly jests, but to the new-comers they were few-spoken, though,
- as the twain deemed, for no enmity that they bore them. But this found
- Walter, that the younger ones, both men and women, seemed to find it a
- hard matter to keep their eyes off them; and seemed, withal, to gaze on
- them with somewhat of doubt, or, it might be, of fear.
- So when the night was wearing a little, the elder arose and bade the
- twain to come with him, and led them to a small house or booth, which was
- amidmost of all, and somewhat bigger than the others, and he did them to
- wit that they should rest there that night, and bade them sleep in peace
- and without fear till the morrow. So they entered, and found beds
- thereon of heather and ling, and they laid them down sweetly, like
- brother and sister, when they had kissed each other. But they noted that
- four brisk men lay without the booth, and across the door, with their
- weapons beside them, so that they must needs look upon themselves as
- captives.
- Then Walter might not refrain him, but spake: "Sweet and dear friend, I
- have come a long way from the quay at Langton, and the vision of the
- Dwarf, the Maid, and the Lady; and for this kiss wherewith I have kissed
- thee e'en now, and the kindness of thine eyes, it was worth the time and
- the travail. But to-morrow, meseemeth, I shall go no further in this
- world, though my journey be far longer than from Langton hither. And now
- may God and All Hallows keep thee amongst this wild folk, whenas I shall
- be gone from thee."
- She laughed low and sweetly, and said: "Dear friend, dost thou speak to
- me thus mournfully to move me to love thee better? Then is thy labour
- lost; for no better may I love thee than now I do; and that is with mine
- whole heart. But keep a good courage, I bid thee; for we be not sundered
- yet, nor shall we be. Nor do I deem that we shall die here, or
- to-morrow; but many years hence, after we have known all the sweetness of
- life. Meanwhile, I bid thee good-night, fair friend!"
- CHAPTER XXVII: MORNING AMONGST THE BEARS
- So Walter laid him down and fell asleep, and knew no more till he awoke
- in bright daylight with the Maid standing over him. She was fresh from
- the water, for she had been to the river to bathe her, and the sun
- through the open door fell streaming on her feet close to Walter's
- pillow. He turned about and cast his arm about them, and caressed them,
- while she stood smiling upon him; then he arose and looked on her, and
- said: "How thou art fair and bright this morning! And yet . . . and yet
- . . . were it not well that thou do off thee all this faded and drooping
- bravery of leaves and blossoms, that maketh thee look like to a
- jongleur's damsel on a morrow of May-day?"
- And he gazed ruefully on her.
- She laughed on him merrily, and said: "Yea, and belike these others think
- no better of my attire, or not much better; for yonder they are gathering
- small wood for the burnt-offering; which, forsooth, shall be thou and I,
- unless I better it all by means of the wisdom I learned of the old woman,
- and perfected betwixt the stripes of my Mistress, whom a little while ago
- thou lovedst somewhat."
- And as she spake her eyes sparkled, her cheek flushed, and her limbs and
- her feet seemed as if they could scarce refrain from dancing for joy.
- Then Walter knit his brow, and for a moment a thought half-framed was in
- his mind: Is it so, that she will bewray me and live without me? and he
- cast his eyes on to the ground. But she said: "Look up, and into mine
- eyes, friend, and see if there be in them any falseness toward thee! For
- I know thy thought; I know thy thought. Dost thou not see that my joy
- and gladness is for the love of thee, and the thought of the rest from
- trouble that is at hand?"
- He looked up, and his eyes met the eyes of her love, and he would have
- cast his arms about her; but she drew aback and said: "Nay, thou must
- refrain thee awhile, dear friend, lest these folk cast eyes on us, and
- deem us over lover-like for what I am to bid them deem me. Abide a
- while, and then shall all be in me according to thy will. But now I must
- tell thee that it is not very far from noon, and that the Bears are
- streaming into the Dale, and already there is an host of men at the Doom-
- ring, and, as I said, the bale for the burnt-offering is wellnigh dight,
- whether it be for us, or for some other creature. And now I have to bid
- thee this, and it will be a thing easy for thee to do, to wit, that thou
- look as if thou wert of the race of the Gods, and not to blench, or show
- sign of blenching, whatever betide: to yea-say both my yea-say and my nay-
- say: and lastly this, which is the only hard thing for thee (but thou
- hast already done it before somewhat), to look upon me with no masterful
- eyes of love, nor as if thou wert at once praying me and commanding me;
- rather thou shalt so demean thee as if thou wert my man all simply, and
- nowise my master."
- "O friend beloved," said Walter, "here at least art thou the master, and
- I will do all thy bidding, in certain hope of this, that either we shall
- live together or die together."
- But as they spoke, in came the elder, and with him a young maiden,
- bearing with them their breakfast of curds arid cream and strawberries,
- and he bade them eat. So they ate, and were not unmerry; and the while
- of their eating the elder talked with them soberly, but not hardly, or
- with any seeming enmity: and ever his talk gat on to the drought, which
- was now burning up the down-pastures; and how the grass in the watered
- dales, which was no wide spread of land, would not hold out much longer
- unless the God sent them rain. And Walter noted that those two, the
- elder and the Maid, eyed each other curiously amidst of this talk; the
- elder intent on what she might say, and if she gave heed to his words;
- while on her side the Maid answered his speech graciously and pleasantly,
- but said little that was of any import: nor would she have him fix her
- eyes, which wandered lightly from this thing to that; nor would her lips
- grow stern and stable, but ever smiled in answer to the light of her
- eyes, as she sat there with her face as the very face of the gladness of
- the summer day.
- CHAPTER XXVIII: OF THE NEW GOD OF THE BEARS
- At last the old man said: "My children, ye shall now come with me unto
- the Doom-ring of our folk, the Bears of the Southern Dales, and deliver
- to them your errand; and I beseech you to have pity upon your own bodies,
- as I have pity on them; on thine especially, Maiden, so fair and bright a
- creature as thou art; for so it is, that if ye deal us out light and
- lying words after the manner of dastards, ye shall miss the worship and
- glory of wending away amidst of the flames, a gift to the God and a hope
- to the people, and shall be passed by the rods of the folk, until ye
- faint and fail amongst them, and then shall ye be thrust down into the
- flow at the Dale's End, and a stone-laden hurdle cast upon you, that we
- may thenceforth forget your folly."
- The Maid now looked full into his eyes, and Walter deemed that the old
- man shrank before her; but she said: "Thou art old and wise, O great man
- of the Bears, yet nought I need to learn of thee. Now lead us on our way
- to the Stead of the Errands."
- So the elder brought them along to the Doom-ring at the eastern end of
- the Dale; and it was now all peopled with those huge men, weaponed after
- their fashion, and standing up, so that the grey stones thereof but
- showed a little over their heads. But amidmost of the said Ring was a
- big stone, fashioned as a chair, whereon sat a very old man, long-hoary
- and white-bearded, and on either side of him stood a great-limbed woman
- clad in war-gear, holding, each of them, a long spear, and with a flint-
- bladed knife in the girdle; and there were no other women in all the
- Mote.
- Then the elder led those twain into the midst of the Mote, and there bade
- them go up on to a wide, flat-topped stone, six feet above the ground,
- just over against the ancient chieftain; and they mounted it by a rough
- stair, and stood there before that folk; Walter in his array of the
- outward world, which had been fair enough, of crimson cloth and silk, and
- white linen, but was now travel-stained and worn; and the Maid with
- nought upon her, save the smock wherein she had fled from the Golden
- House of the Wood beyond the World, decked with the faded flowers which
- she had wreathed about her yesterday. Nevertheless, so it was, that
- those big men eyed her intently, and with somewhat of worship.
- Now did Walter, according to her bidding, sink down on his knees beside
- her, and drawing his sword, hold it before him, as if to keep all
- interlopers aloof from the Maid. And there was silence in the Mote, and
- all eyes were fixed on those twain.
- At last the old chief arose and spake: "Ye men, here are come a man and a
- woman, we know not whence; whereas they have given word to our folk who
- first met them, that they would tell their errand to none save the Mote
- of the People; which it was their due to do, if they were minded to risk
- it. For either they be aliens without an errand hither, save, it may be,
- to beguile us, in which case they shall presently die an evil death; or
- they have come amongst us that we may give them to the God with flint-
- edge and fire; or they have a message to us from some folk or other, on
- the issue of which lieth life or death. Now shall ye hear what they have
- to say concerning themselves and their faring hither. But, meseemeth, it
- shall be the woman who is the chief and hath the word in her mouth; for,
- lo you! the man kneeleth at her feet, as one who would serve and worship
- her. Speak out then, woman, and let our warriors hear thee."
- Then the Maid lifted up her voice, and spake out clear and shrilling,
- like to a flute of the best of the minstrels: "Ye men of the Children of
- the Bear, I would ask you a question, and let the chieftain who sitteth
- before me answer it."
- The old man nodded his head, and she went on: "Tell me, Children of the
- Bear, how long a time is worn since ye saw the God of your worship made
- manifest in the body of a woman!"
- Said the elder: "Many winters have worn since my father's father was a
- child, and saw the very God in the bodily form of a woman."
- Then she said again: "Did ye rejoice at her coming, and would ye rejoice
- if once more she came amongst you?"
- "Yea," said the old chieftain, "for she gave us gifts, and learned us
- lore, and came to us in no terrible shape, but as a young woman as goodly
- as thou."
- Then said the Maid: "Now, then, is the day of your gladness come; for the
- old body is dead, and I am the new body of your God, come amongst you for
- your welfare."
- Then fell a great silence on the Mote, till the old man spake and said:
- "What shall I say and live? For if thou be verily the God, and I
- threaten thee, wilt thou not destroy me? But thou hast spoken a great
- word with a sweet mouth, and hast taken the burden of blood on thy lily
- hands; and if the Children of the Bear be befooled of light liars, how
- shall they put the shame off them? Therefore I say, show to us a token;
- and if thou be the God, this shall be easy to thee; and if thou show it
- not, then is thy falsehood manifest, and thou shalt dree the weird. For
- we shall deliver thee into the hands of these women here, who shall
- thrust thee down into the flow which is hereby, after they have wearied
- themselves with whipping thee. But thy man that kneeleth at thy feet
- shall we give to the true God, and he shall go to her by the road of the
- flint and the fire. Hast thou heard? Then give to us the sign and the
- token."
- She changed countenance no whit at his word; but her eyes were the
- brighter, and her cheek the fresher and her feet moved a little, as if
- they were growing glad before the dance; and she looked out over the
- Mote, and spake in her clear voice: "Old man, thou needest not to fear
- for thy words. Forsooth it is not me whom thou threatenest with stripes
- and a foul death, but some light fool and liar, who is not here. Now
- hearken! I wot well that ye would have somewhat of me, to wit, that I
- should send you rain to end this drought, which otherwise seemeth like to
- lie long upon you: but this rain, I must go into the mountains of the
- south to fetch it you; therefore shall certain of your warriors bring me
- on my way, with this my man, up to the great pass of the said mountains,
- and we shall set out thitherward this very day."
- She was silent a while, and all looked on her, but none spake or moved,
- so that they seemed as images of stone amongst the stones.
- Then she spake again and said: "Some would say, men of the Bear, that
- this were a sign and a token great enough; but I know you, and how
- stubborn and perverse of heart ye be; and how that the gift not yet
- within your hand is no gift to you; and the wonder ye see not, your
- hearts trow not. Therefore look ye upon me as here I stand, I who have
- come from the fairer country and the greenwood of the lands, and see if I
- bear not the summer with me, and the heart that maketh increase and the
- hand that giveth."
- Lo then! as she spake, the faded flowers that hung about her gathered
- life and grew fresh again; the woodbine round her neck and her sleek
- shoulders knit itself together and embraced her freshly, and cast its
- scent about her face. The lilies that girded her loins lifted up their
- heads, and the gold of their tassels fell upon her; the eyebright grew
- clean blue again upon her smock; the eglantine found its blooms again,
- and then began to shed the leaves thereof upon her feet; the meadow-sweet
- wreathed amongst it made clear the sweetness of her legs, and the mouse-
- ear studded her raiment as with gems. There she stood amidst of the
- blossoms, like a great orient pearl against the fretwork of the
- goldsmiths, and the breeze that came up the valley from behind bore the
- sweetness of her fragrance all over the Man-mote.
- Then, indeed, the Bears stood up, and shouted and cried, and smote on
- their shields, and tossed their spears aloft. Then the elder rose from
- his seat, and came up humbly to where she stood, and prayed her to say
- what she would have done; while the others drew about in knots, but durst
- not come very nigh to her. She answered the ancient chief, and said,
- that she would depart presently toward the mountains, whereby she might
- send them the rain which they lacked, and that thence she would away to
- the southward for a while; but that they should hear of her, or, it might
- be, see her, before they who were now of middle age should be gone to
- their fathers.
- Then the old man besought her that they might make her a litter of
- fragrant green boughs, and so bear her away toward the mountain pass
- amidst a triumph of the whole folk. But she leapt lightly down from the
- stone, and walked to and fro on the greensward, while it seemed of her
- that her feet scarce touched the grass; and she spake to the ancient
- chief where he still kneeled in worship of her, and said "Nay; deemest
- thou of me that I need bearing by men's hands, or that I shall tire at
- all when I am doing my will, and I, the very heart of the year's
- increase? So it is, that the going of my feet over your pastures shall
- make them to thrive, both this year and the coming years: surely will I
- go afoot."
- So they worshipped her the more, and blessed her; and then first of all
- they brought meat, the daintiest they might, both for her and for Walter.
- But they would not look on the Maid whiles she ate, or suffer Walter to
- behold her the while. Afterwards, when they had eaten, some twenty men,
- weaponed after their fashion, made them ready to wend with the Maiden up
- into the mountains, and anon they set out thitherward all together.
- Howbeit, the huge men held them ever somewhat aloof from the Maid; and
- when they came to the resting-place for that night, where was no house,
- for it was up amongst the foot-hills before the mountains, then it was a
- wonder to see how carefully they built up a sleeping-place for her, and
- tilted it over with their skin-cloaks, and how they watched nightlong
- about her. But Walter they let sleep peacefully on the grass, a little
- way aloof from the watchers round the Maid.
- CHAPTER XXIX: WALTER STRAYS IN THE PASS AND IS SUNDERED FROM THE MAID
- Morning came, and they arose and went on their ways, and went all day
- till the sun was nigh set, and they were come up into the very pass; and
- in the jaws thereof was an earthen howe. There the Maid bade them stay,
- and she went up on to the howe, and stood there and spake to them, and
- said: "O men of the Bear, I give you thanks for your following, and I
- bless you, and promise you the increase of the earth. But now ye shall
- turn aback, and leave me to go my ways; and my man with the iron sword
- shall follow me. Now, maybe, I shall come amongst the Bear-folk again
- before long, and yet again, and learn them wisdom; but for this time it
- is enough. And I shall tell you that ye were best to hasten home
- straightway to your houses in the downland dales, for the weather which I
- have bidden for you is even now coming forth from the forge of storms in
- the heart of the mountains. Now this last word I give you, that times
- are changed since I wore the last shape of God that ye have seen,
- wherefore a change I command you. If so be aliens come amongst you, I
- will not that ye send them to me by the flint and the fire; rather,
- unless they be baleful unto you, and worthy of an evil death, ye shall
- suffer them to abide with you; ye shall make them become children of the
- Bears, if they be goodly enough and worthy, and they shall be my children
- as ye be; otherwise, if they be ill-favoured and weakling, let them live
- and be thralls to you, but not join with you, man to woman. Now depart
- ye with my blessing."
- Therewith she came down from the mound, and went her ways up the pass so
- lightly, that it was to Walter, standing amongst the Bears, as if she had
- vanished away. But the men of that folk abode standing and worshipping
- their God for a little while, and that while he durst not sunder him from
- their company. But when they had blessed him and gone on their way
- backward, he betook him in haste to following the Maid, thinking to find
- her abiding him in some nook of the pass.
- Howsoever, it was now twilight or more, and, for all his haste, dark
- night overtook him, so that perforce he was stayed amidst the tangle of
- the mountain ways. And, moreover, ere the night was grown old, the
- weather came upon him on the back of a great south wind, so that the
- mountain nooks rattled and roared, and there was the rain and the hail,
- with thunder and lightning, monstrous and terrible, and all the huge
- array of a summer storm. So he was driven at last to crouch under a big
- rock and abide the day.
- But not so were his troubles at an end. For under the said rock he fell
- asleep, and when he awoke it was day indeed; but as to the pass, the way
- thereby was blind with the driving rain and the lowering lift; so that,
- though he struggled as well as he might against the storm and the tangle,
- he made but little way.
- And now once more the thought came on him, that the Maid was of the fays,
- or of some race even mightier; and it came on him now not as erst, with
- half fear and whole desire, but with a bitter oppression of dread, of
- loss and misery; so that he began to fear that she had but won his love
- to leave him and forget him for a new-comer, after the wont of fay-women,
- as old tales tell.
- Two days he battled thus with storm and blindness, and wanhope of his
- life; for he was growing weak and fordone. But the third morning the
- storm abated, though the rain yet fell heavily, and he could see his way
- somewhat as well as feel it: withal he found that now his path was
- leading him downwards. As it grew dusk, he came down into a grassy
- valley with a stream running through it to the southward, and the rain
- was now but little, coming down but in dashes from time to time. So he
- crept down to the stream-side, and lay amongst the bushes there; and said
- to himself, that on the morrow he would get him victual, so that he might
- live to seek his Maiden through the wide world. He was of somewhat
- better heart: but now that he was laid quiet, and had no more for that
- present to trouble him about the way, the anguish of his loss fell upon
- him the keener, and he might not refrain him from lamenting his dear
- Maiden aloud, as one who deemed himself in the empty wilderness: and thus
- he lamented for her sweetness and her loveliness, and the kindness of her
- voice and her speech, and her mirth. Then he fell to crying out
- concerning the beauty of her shaping, praising the parts of her body, as
- her face, and her hands, and her shoulders, and her feet, and cursing the
- evil fate which had sundered him from the friendliness of her, and the
- peerless fashion of her.
- CHAPTER XXX: NOW THEY MEET AGAIN
- Complaining thus-wise, he fell asleep from sheer weariness, and when he
- awoke it was broad day, calm and bright and cloudless, with the scent of
- the earth refreshed going up into the heavens, and the birds singing
- sweetly in the bushes about him: for the dale whereunto he was now come
- was a fair and lovely place amidst the shelving slopes of the mountains,
- a paradise of the wilderness, and nought but pleasant and sweet things
- were to be seen there, now that the morn was so clear and sunny.
- He arose and looked about him, and saw where, a hundred yards aloof, was
- a thicket of small wood, as thorn and elder and whitebeam, all wreathed
- about with the bines of wayfaring tree; it hid a bight of the stream,
- which turned round about it, and betwixt it and Walter was the grass
- short and thick, and sweet, and all beset with flowers; and he said to
- himself that it was even such a place as wherein the angels were leading
- the Blessed in the great painted paradise in the choir of the big church
- at Langton on Holm. But lo! as he looked he cried aloud for joy, for
- forth from the thicket on to the flowery grass came one like to an angel
- from out of the said picture, white-clad and bare-foot, sweet of flesh,
- with bright eyes and ruddy cheeks; for it was the Maid herself. So he
- ran to her, and she abode him, holding forth kind hands to him, and
- smiling, while she wept for joy of the meeting. He threw himself upon
- her, and spared not to kiss her, her cheeks and her mouth, and her arms
- and her shoulders, and wheresoever she would suffer it. Till at last she
- drew aback a little, laughing on him for love, and said: "Forbear now,
- friend, for it is enough for this time, and tell me how thou hast sped."
- "Ill, ill," said he.
- "What ails thee?" she said.
- "Hunger," he said, "and longing for thee."
- "Well," she said, "me thou hast; there is one ill quenched; take my hand,
- and we will see to the other one."
- So he took her hand, and to hold it seemed to him sweet beyond measure.
- But he looked up, and saw a little blue smoke going up into the air from
- beyond the thicket; and he laughed, for he was weak with hunger, and he
- said: "Who is at the cooking yonder?"
- "Thou shalt see," she said; and led him therewith into the said thicket
- and through it, and lo! a fair little grassy place, full of flowers,
- betwixt the bushes and the bight of the stream; and on the little sandy
- ere, just off the greensward, was a fire of sticks, and beside it two
- trouts lying, fat and red-flecked.
- "Here is the breakfast," said she; "when it was time to wash the night
- off me e'en now, I went down the strand here into the rippling shallow,
- and saw the bank below it, where the water draws together yonder, and
- deepens, that it seemed like to hold fish; and whereas I looked to meet
- thee presently, I groped the bank for them, going softly; and lo thou!
- Help me now, that we cook them."
- So they roasted them on the red embers, and fell to and ate well, both of
- them, and drank of the water of the stream out of each other's hollow
- hands; and that feast seemed glorious to them, such gladness went with
- it.
- But when they were done with their meat, Walter said to the Maid: "And
- how didst thou know that thou shouldst see me presently?"
- She said, looking on him wistfully: "This needed no wizardry. I lay not
- so far from thee last night, but that I heard thy voice and knew it."
- Said he, "Why didst thou not come to me then, since thou heardest me
- bemoaning thee?"
- She cast her eyes down, and plucked at the flowers and grass, and said:
- "It was dear to hear thee praising me; I knew not before that I was so
- sore desired, or that thou hadst taken such note of my body, and found it
- so dear."
- Then she reddened sorely, and said: "I knew not that aught of me had such
- beauty as thou didst bewail."
- And she wept for joy. Then she looked on him and smiled, and said: "Wilt
- thou have the very truth of it? I went close up to thee, and stood there
- hidden by the bushes and the night. And amidst thy bewailing, I knew
- that thou wouldst soon fall asleep, and in sooth I out-waked thee."
- Then was she silent again; and he spake not, but looked on her shyly; and
- she said, reddening yet more: "Furthermore, I must needs tell thee that I
- feared to go to thee in the dark night, and my heart so yearning towards
- thee."
- And she hung her head adown; but he said: "Is it so indeed, that thou
- fearest me? Then doth that make me afraid--afraid of thy nay-say. For I
- was going to entreat thee, and say to thee: Beloved, we have now gone
- through many troubles; let us now take a good reward at once, and wed
- together, here amidst this sweet and pleasant house of the mountains, ere
- we go further on our way; if indeed we go further at all. For where
- shall we find any place sweeter or happier than this?"
- But she sprang up to her feet, and stood there trembling before him,
- because of her love; and she said: "Beloved, I have deemed that it were
- good for us to go seek mankind as they live in the world, and to live
- amongst them. And as for me, I will tell thee the sooth, to wit, that I
- long for this sorely. For I feel afraid in the wilderness, and as if I
- needed help and protection against my Mistress, though she be dead; and I
- need the comfort of many people, and the throngs of the cities. I cannot
- forget her: it was but last night that I dreamed (I suppose as the dawn
- grew a-cold) that I was yet under her hand, and she was stripping me for
- the torment; so that I woke up panting and crying out. I pray thee be
- not angry with me for telling thee of my desires; for if thou wouldst not
- have it so, then here will I abide with thee as thy mate, and strive to
- gather courage."
- He rose up and kissed her face, and said: "Nay, I had in sooth no mind to
- abide here for ever; I meant but that we should feast a while here, and
- then depart: sooth it is, that if thou dreadest the wilderness, somewhat
- I dread the city."
- She turned pale, and said: "Thou shalt have thy will, my friend, if it
- must be so. But bethink thee we be not yet at our journey's end, and may
- have many things and much strife to endure, before we be at peace and in
- welfare. Now shall I tell thee--did I not before?--that while I am a
- maid untouched, my wisdom, and somedeal of might, abideth with me, and
- only so long. Therefore I entreat thee, let us go now, side by side, out
- of this fair valley, even as we are, so that my wisdom and might may help
- thee at need. For, my friend, I would not that our lives be short, so
- much of joy as hath now come into them."
- "Yea, beloved," he said, "let us on straightway then, and shorten the
- while that sundereth us."
- "Love," she said, "thou shalt pardon me one time for all. But this is to
- be said, that I know somewhat of the haps that lie a little way ahead of
- us; partly by my lore, and partly by what I learned of this land of the
- wild folk whiles thou wert lying asleep that morning."
- So they left that pleasant place by the water, and came into the open
- valley, and went their ways through the pass; and it soon became stony
- again, as they mounted the bent which went up from out the dale. And
- when they came to the brow of the said bent, they had a sight of the open
- country lying fair and joyous in the sunshine, and amidst of it, against
- the blue hills, the walls and towers of a great city.
- Then said the Maid: "O, dear friend, lo you! is not that our abode that
- lieth yonder, and is so beauteous? Dwell not our friends there, and our
- protection against uncouth wights, and mere evil things in guileful
- shapes? O city, I bid thee hail!"
- But Walter looked on her, and smiled somewhat; and said: "I rejoice in
- thy joy. But there be evil things in yonder city also, though they be
- not fays nor devils, or it is like to no city that I wot of. And in
- every city shall foes grow up to us without rhyme or reason, and life
- therein shall be tangled unto us."
- "Yea," she said; "but in the wilderness amongst the devils, what was to
- be done by manly might or valiancy? There hadst thou to fall back upon
- the guile and wizardry which I had filched from my very foes. But when
- we come down yonder, then shall thy valiancy prevail to cleave the tangle
- for us. Or at the least, it shall leave a tale of thee behind, and I
- shall worship thee."
- He laughed, and his face grew brighter: "Mastery mows the meadow," quoth
- he, "and one man is of little might against many. But I promise thee I
- shall not be slothful before thee."
- CHAPTER XXXI: THEY COME UPON NEW FOLK
- With that they went down from the bent again, and came to where the pass
- narrowed so much, that they went betwixt a steep wall of rock on either
- side; but after an hour's going, the said wall gave back suddenly, and,
- or they were ware almost, they came on another dale like to that which
- they had left, but not so fair, though it was grassy and well watered,
- and not so big either. But here indeed befell a change to them; for lo!
- tents and pavilions pitched in the said valley, and amidst of it a throng
- of men, mostly weaponed, and with horses ready saddled at hand. So they
- stayed their feet, and Walter's heart failed him, for he said to himself:
- Who wotteth what these men may be, save that they be aliens? It is most
- like that we shall be taken as thralls; and then, at the best, we shall
- be sundered; and that is all one with the worst.
- But the Maid, when she saw the horses, and the gay tents, and the pennons
- fluttering, and the glitter of spears, and gleaming of white armour,
- smote her palms together for joy, and cried out: "Here now are come the
- folk of the city for our welcoming, and fair and lovely are they, and of
- many things shall they be thinking, and a many things shall they do, and
- we shall be partakers thereof. Come then, and let us meet them, fair
- friend!"
- But Walter said: "Alas! thou knowest not: would that we might flee! But
- now is it over late; so put we a good face on it, and go to them quietly,
- as erewhile we did in the Bear-country."
- So did they; and there sundered six from the men-at-arms and came to
- those twain, and made humble obeisance to Walter, but spake no word. Then
- they made as they would lead them to the others, and the twain went with
- them wondering, and came into the ring of men-at-arms, and stood before
- an old hoar knight, armed all, save his head, with most goodly armour,
- and he also bowed before Walter, but spake no word. Then they took them
- to the master pavilion, and made signs to them to sit, and they brought
- them dainty meat and good wine. And the while of their eating arose up a
- stir about them; and when they were done with their meat, the ancient
- knight came to them, still bowing in courteous wise, and did them to wit
- by signs that they should depart: and when they were without, they saw
- all the other tents struck, and men beginning to busy them with striking
- the pavilion, and the others mounted and ranked in good order for the
- road; and there were two horse-litters before them, wherein they were
- bidden to mount, Walter in one, and the Maid in the other, and no
- otherwise might they do. Then presently was a horn blown, and all took
- to the road together; and Walter saw betwixt the curtains of the litter
- that men-at-arms rode on either side of him, albeit they had left him his
- sword by his side.
- So they went down the mountain-passes, and before sunset were gotten into
- the plain; but they made no stay for nightfall, save to eat a morsel and
- drink a draught, going through the night as men who knew their way well.
- As they went, Walter wondered what would betide, and if peradventure they
- also would be for offering them up to their Gods; whereas they were
- aliens for certain, and belike also Saracens. Moreover there was a cold
- fear at his heart that he should be sundered from the Maid, whereas their
- masters now were mighty men of war, holding in their hands that which all
- men desire, to wit, the manifest beauty of a woman. Yet he strove to
- think the best of it that he might. And so at last, when the night was
- far spent, and dawn was at hand, they stayed at a great and mighty gate
- in a huge wall. There they blew loudly on the horn thrice, and
- thereafter the gates were opened, and they all passed through into a
- street, which seemed to Walter in the glimmer to be both great and goodly
- amongst the abodes of men. Then it was but a little ere they came into a
- square, wide-spreading, one side whereof Walter took to be the front of a
- most goodly house. There the doors of the court opened to them or ever
- the horn might blow, though, forsooth, blow it did loudly three times;
- all they entered therein, and men came to Walter and signed to him to
- alight. So did he, and would have tarried to look about for the Maid,
- but they suffered it not, but led him up a huge stair into a chamber,
- very great, and but dimly lighted because of its greatness. Then they
- brought him to a bed dight as fair as might be, and made signs to him to
- strip and lie therein. Perforce he did so, and then they bore away his
- raiment, and left him lying there. So he lay there quietly, deeming it
- no avail for him, a mother-naked man, to seek escape thence; but it was
- long ere he might sleep, because of his trouble of mind. At last, pure
- weariness got the better of his hopes and fears, and he fell into slumber
- just as the dawn was passing into day.
- CHAPTER XXXII: OF THE NEW KING OF THE CITY AND LAND OF STARK-WALL
- When he awoke again the sun was shining brightly into that chamber, and
- he looked, and beheld that it was peerless of beauty and riches, amongst
- all that he had ever seen: the ceiling done with gold and over-sea blue;
- the walls hung with arras of the fairest, though he might not tell what
- was the history done therein. The chairs and stools were of carven work
- well be-painted, and amidmost was a great ivory chair under a cloth of
- estate, of bawdekin of gold and green, much be-pearled; and all the floor
- was of fine work alexandrine.
- He looked on all this, wondering what had befallen him, when lo! there
- came folk into the chamber, to wit, two serving-men well-bedight, and
- three old men clad in rich gowns of silk. These came to him and (still
- by signs, without speech) bade him arise and come with them; and when he
- bade them look to it that he was naked, and laughed doubtfully, they
- neither laughed in answer, nor offered him any raiment, but still would
- have him arise, and he did so perforce. They brought him with them out
- of the chamber, and through certain passages pillared and goodly, till
- they came to a bath as fair as any might be; and there the serving-men
- washed him carefully and tenderly, the old men looking on the while. When
- it was done, still they offered not to clothe him, but led him out, and
- through the passages again, back to the chamber. Only this time he must
- pass between a double hedge of men, some weaponed, some in peaceful
- array, but all clad gloriously, and full chieftain-like of aspect, either
- for valiancy or wisdom.
- In the chamber itself was now a concourse of men, of great estate by
- deeming of their array; but all these were standing orderly in a ring
- about the ivory chair aforesaid. Now said Walter to himself: Surely all
- this looks toward the knife and the altar for me; but he kept a stout
- countenance despite of all.
- So they led him up to the ivory chair, and he beheld on either side
- thereof a bench, and on each was laid a set of raiment from the shirt
- upwards; but there was much diversity betwixt these arrays. For one was
- all of robes of peace, glorious and be-gemmed, unmeet for any save a
- great king; while the other was war-weed, seemly, well-fashioned, but
- little adorned; nay rather, worn and bestained with weather, and the
- pelting of the spear-storm.
- Now those old men signed to Walter to take which of those raiments he
- would, and do it on. He looked to the right and the left, and when he
- had looked on the war-gear, the heart arose in him, and he called to mind
- the array of the Goldings in the forefront of battle, and he made one
- step toward the weapons, and laid his hand thereon. Then ran a glad
- murmur through that concourse, and the old men drew up to him smiling and
- joyous, and helped him to do them on; and as he took up the helm, he
- noted that over its broad brown iron sat a golden crown.
- So when he was clad and weaponed, girt with a sword, and a steel axe in
- his hand, the elders showed him to the ivory throne, and he laid the axe
- on the arm of the chair, and drew forth the sword from the scabbard, and
- sat him down, and laid the ancient blade across his knees; then he looked
- about on those great men, and spake: "How long shall we speak no word to
- each other, or is it so that God hath stricken you dumb?"
- Then all they cried out with one voice: "All hail to the King, the King
- of Battle!"
- Spake Walter: "If I be king, will ye do my will as I bid you?"
- Answered the elder: "Nought have we will to do, lord, save as thou
- biddest."
- Said Walter: "Thou then, wilt thou answer a question in all truth?"
- "Yea, lord," said the elder, "if I may live afterward."
- Then said Walter: "The woman that came with me into your Camp of the
- Mountain, what hath befallen her?"
- The elder answered: "Nought hath befallen her, either of good or evil,
- save that she hath slept and eaten and bathed her. What, then, is the
- King's pleasure concerning her?"
- "That ye bring her hither to me straightway," said Walter.
- "Yea," said the elder; "and in what guise shall we bring her hither?
- shall she be arrayed as a servant, or a great lady?"
- Then Walter pondered a while, and spake at last: "Ask her what is her
- will herein, and as she will have it, so let it be. But set ye another
- chair beside mine, and lead her thereto. Thou wise old man, send one or
- two to bring her in hither, but abide thou, for I have a question or two
- to ask of thee yet. And ye, lords, abide here the coming of my
- she-fellow, if it weary you not."
- So the elder spake to three of the most honourable of the lords, and they
- went their ways to bring in the Maid.
- CHAPTER XXXIII: CONCERNING THE FASHION OF KING-MAKING IN STARK-WALL
- Meanwhile the King spake to the elder, and said: "Now tell me whereof I
- am become king, and what is the fashion and cause of the king-making; for
- wondrous it is to me, whereas I am but an alien amidst of mighty men."
- "Lord," said the old man, "thou art become king of a mighty city, which
- hath under it many other cities and wide lands, and havens by the sea-
- side, and which lacketh no wealth which men desire. Many wise men dwell
- therein, and of fools not more than in other lands. A valiant host shall
- follow thee to battle when needs must thou wend afield; an host not to be
- withstood, save by the ancient God-folk, if any of them were left upon
- the earth, as belike none are. And as to the name of our said city, it
- hight the City of the Stark-wall, or more shortly, Stark-wall. Now as to
- the fashion of our king-making: If our king dieth and leaveth an heir
- male, begotten of his body, then is he king after him; but if he die and
- leave no heir, then send we out a great lord, with knights and sergeants,
- to that pass of the mountain whereto ye came yesterday; and the first man
- that cometh unto them, they take and lead to the city, as they did with
- thee, lord. For we believe and trow that of old time our forefathers
- came down from the mountains by that same pass, poor and rude, but full
- of valiancy, before they conquered these lands, and builded the Stark-
- wall. But now furthermore, when we have gotten the said wanderer, and
- brought him home to our city, we behold him mother-naked, all the great
- men of us, both sages and warriors; then if we find him ill-fashioned and
- counterfeit of his body, we roll him in a great carpet till he dies; or
- whiles, if he be but a simple man, and without guile, we deliver him for
- thrall to some artificer amongst us, as a shoemaker, a wright, or what
- not, and so forget him. But in either case we make as if no such man had
- come to us, and we send again the lord and his knights to watch the pass;
- for we say that such an one the Fathers of old time have not sent us. But
- again, when we have seen to the new-comer that he is well-fashioned of
- his body, all is not done; for we deem that never would the Fathers send
- us a dolt or a craven to be our king. Therefore we bid the naked one
- take to him which he will of these raiments, either the ancient armour,
- which now thou bearest, lord, or this golden raiment here; and if he take
- the war-gear, as thou takedst it, King, it is well; but if he take the
- raiment of peace, then hath he the choice either to be thrall of some
- goodman of the city, or to be proven how wise he may be, and so fare the
- narrow edge betwixt death and kingship; for if he fall short of his
- wisdom, then shall he die the death. Thus is thy question answered,
- King, and praise be to the Fathers that they have sent us one whom none
- may doubt, either for wisdom or valiancy."
- CHAPTER XXXIV: NOW COMETH THE MAID TO THE KING
- Then all they bowed before the King, and he spake again: "What is that
- noise that I hear without, as if it were the rising of the sea on a sandy
- shore, when the south-west wind is blowing."
- Then the elder opened his mouth to answer; but before he might get out
- the word, there was a stir without the chamber door, and the throng
- parted, and lo! amidst of them came the Maid, and she yet clad in nought
- save the white coat wherewith she had won through the wilderness, save
- that on her head was a garland of red roses, and her middle was wreathed
- with the same. Fresh and fair she was as the dawn of June; her face
- bright, red-lipped, and clear-eyed, and her cheeks flushed with hope and
- love. She went straight to Walter where he sat, and lightly put away
- with her hand the elder who would lead her to the ivory throne beside the
- King; but she knelt down before him, and laid her hand on his steel-clad
- knee, and said: "O my lord, now I see that thou hast beguiled me, and
- that thou wert all along a king-born man coming home to thy realm. But
- so dear thou hast been to me; and so fair and clear, and so kind withal
- do thine eyes shine on me from under the grey war-helm, that I will
- beseech thee not to cast me out utterly, but suffer me to be thy servant
- and handmaid for a while. Wilt thou not?"
- But the King stooped down to her and raised her up, and stood on his
- feet, and took her hands and kissed them, and set her down beside him,
- and said to her: "Sweetheart, this is now thy place till the night
- cometh, even by my side."
- So she sat down there meek and valiant, her hands laid in her lap, and
- her feet one over the other; while the King said: "Lords, this is my
- beloved, and my spouse. Now, therefore, if ye will have me for King, ye
- must worship this one for Queen and Lady; or else suffer us both to go
- our ways in peace."
- Then all they that were in the chamber cried out aloud: "The Queen, the
- Lady! The beloved of our lord!"
- And this cry came from their hearts, and not their lips only; for as they
- looked on her, and the brightness of her beauty, they saw also the
- meekness of her demeanour, and the high heart of her, and they all fell
- to loving her. But the young men of them, their cheeks flushed as they
- beheld her, and their hearts went out to her, and they drew their swords
- and brandished them aloft, and cried out for her as men made suddenly
- drunk with love: "The Queen, the Lady, the lovely one!"
- CHAPTER XXXV: OF THE KING OF STARK-WALL AND HIS QUEEN
- But while this betid, that murmur without, which is aforesaid, grew
- louder; and it smote on the King's ear, and he said again to the elder:
- "Tell us now of that noise withoutward, what is it?"
- Said the elder: "If thou, King, and the Queen, wilt but arise and stand
- in the window, and go forth into the hanging gallery thereof, then shall
- ye know at once what is this rumour, and therewithal shall ye see a sight
- meet to rejoice the heart of a king new come into kingship."
- So the King arose and took the Maid by the hand, and went to the window
- and looked forth; and lo! the great square of the place all thronged with
- folk as thick as they could stand, and the more part of the carles with a
- weapon in hand, and many armed right gallantly. Then he went out into
- the gallery with his Queen, still holding her hand, and his lords and
- wise men stood behind him. Straightway then arose a cry, and a shout of
- joy and welcome that rent the very heavens, and the great place was all
- glittering and strange with the tossing up of spears and the brandishing
- of swords, and the stretching forth of hands.
- But the Maid spake softly to King Walter and said: "Here then is the
- wilderness left behind a long way, and here is warding and protection
- against the foes of our life and soul. O blessed be thou and thy valiant
- heart!"
- But Walter spake nothing, but stood as one in a dream; and yet, if that
- might be, his longing toward her increased manifold.
- But down below, amidst of the throng, stood two neighbours somewhat anigh
- to the window; and quoth one to the other: "See thou! the new man in the
- ancient armour of the Battle of the Waters, bearing the sword that slew
- the foeman king on the Day of the Doubtful Onset! Surely this is a sign
- of good-luck to us all."
- "Yea," said the second, "he beareth his armour well, and the eyes are
- bright in the head of him: but hast thou beheld well his she-fellow, and
- what the like of her is?"
- "I see her," said the other, "that she is a fair woman; yet somewhat
- worse clad than simply. She is in her smock, man, and were it not for
- the balusters I deem ye should see her barefoot. What is amiss with
- her?"
- "Dost thou not see her," said the second neighbour, "that she is not only
- a fair woman, but yet more, one of those lovely ones that draw the heart
- out of a man's body, one may scarce say for why? Surely Stark-wall hath
- cast a lucky net this time. And as to her raiment, I see of her that she
- is clad in white and wreathed with roses, but that the flesh of her is so
- wholly pure and sweet that it maketh all her attire but a part of her
- body, and halloweth it, so that it hath the semblance of gems. Alas, my
- friend! let us hope that this Queen will fare abroad unseldom amongst the
- people."
- Thus, then, they spake; but after a while the King and his mate went back
- into the chamber, and he gave command that the women of the Queen should
- come and fetch her away, to attire her in royal array. And thither came
- the fairest of the honourable damsels, and were fain of being her waiting-
- women. Therewithal the King was unarmed, and dight most gloriously, but
- still he bore the Sword of the King's Slaying: and sithence were the King
- and the Queen brought into the great hall of the palace, and they met on
- the dais, and kissed before the lords and other folk that thronged the
- hall. There they ate a morsel and drank a cup together while all beheld
- them; and then they were brought forth, and a white horse of the
- goodliest, well bedight, brought for each of them, and thereon they
- mounted and went their ways together, by the lane which the huge throng
- made for them, to the great church, for the hallowing and the crowning;
- and they were led by one squire alone, and he unarmed; for such was the
- custom of Stark-wall when a new king should be hallowed: so came they to
- the great church (for that folk was not miscreant, so to say), and they
- entered it, they two alone, and went into the choir: and when they had
- stood there a little while wondering at their lot, they heard how the
- bells fell a-ringing tunefully over their heads; and then drew near the
- sound of many trumpets blowing together, and thereafter the voices of
- many folk singing; and then were the great doors thrown open, and the
- bishop and his priests came into the church with singing and minstrelsy,
- and thereafter came the whole throng of the folk, and presently the nave
- of the church was filled by it, as when the water follows the cutting of
- the dam, and fills up the dyke. Thereafter came the bishop and his mates
- into the choir, and came up to the King, and gave him and the Queen the
- kiss of peace. This was mass sung gloriously; and thereafter was the
- King anointed and crowned, and great joy was made throughout the church.
- Afterwards they went back afoot to the palace, they two alone together,
- with none but the esquire going before to show them the way. And as they
- went, they passed close beside those two neighbours, whose talk has been
- told of afore, and the first one, he who had praised the King's
- war-array, spake and said: "Truly, neighbour, thou art in the right of
- it; and now the Queen has been dight duly, and hath a crown on her head,
- and is clad in white samite done all over with pearls, I see her to be of
- exceeding goodliness; as goodly, maybe, as the Lord King."
- Quoth the other: "Unto me she seemeth as she did e'en now; she is clad in
- white, as then she was, and it is by reason of the pure and sweet flesh
- of her that the pearls shine out and glow, and by the holiness of her
- body is her rich attire hallowed; but, forsooth, it seemed to me as she
- went past as though paradise had come anigh to our city, and that all the
- air breathed of it. So I say, praise be to God and His Hallows who hath
- suffered her to dwell amongst us!"
- Said the first man: "Forsooth, it is well; but knowest thou at all whence
- she cometh, and of what lineage she may be?"
- "Nay," said the other, "I wot not whence she is; but this I wot full
- surely, that when she goeth away, they whom she leadeth with her shall be
- well bestead. Again, of her lineage nought know I; but this I know, that
- they that come of her, to the twentieth generation, shall bless and
- praise the memory of her, and hallow her name little less than they
- hallow the name of the Mother of God."
- So spake those two; but the King and Queen came back to the palace, and
- sat among the lords and at the banquet which was held thereafter, and
- long was the time of their glory, till the night was far spent and all
- men must seek to their beds.
- CHAPTER XXXVI: OF WALTER AND THE MAID IN THE DAYS OF THE KINGSHIP
- Long it was, indeed, till the women, by the King's command, had brought
- the Maid to the King's chamber; and he met her, and took her by the
- shoulders and kissed her, and said: "Art thou not weary, sweetheart? Doth
- not the city, and the thronging folk, and the watching eyes of the great
- ones . . . doth it not all lie heavy on thee, as it doth upon me?"
- She said: "And where is the city now? is not this the wilderness again,
- and thou and I alone together therein?"
- He gazed at her eagerly, and she reddened, so that her eyes shone light
- amidst the darkness of the flush of her cheeks.
- He spake trembling and softly, and said: "Is it not in one matter better
- than the wilderness? is not the fear gone, yea, every whit thereof?"
- The dark flush had left her face, and she looked on him exceeding
- sweetly, and spoke steadily and clearly: "Even so it is, beloved."
- Therewith she set her hand to the girdle that girt her loins, and did it
- off, and held it out toward him, and said: "Here is the token; this is a
- maid's girdle, and the woman is ungirt."
- So he took the girdle and her hand withal, and cast his arms about her:
- and amidst the sweetness of their love and their safety, and assured hope
- of many days of joy, they spake together of the hours when they fared the
- razor-edge betwixt guile and misery and death, and the sweeter yet it
- grew to them because of it; and many things she told him ere the dawn, of
- the evil days bygone, and the dealings of the Mistress with her, till the
- grey day stole into the chamber to make manifest her loveliness; which,
- forsooth, was better even than the deeming of that man amidst the throng
- whose heart had been so drawn towards her. So they rejoiced together in
- the new day.
- But when the full day was, and Walter arose, he called his thanes and
- wise men to the council; and first he bade open the prison-doors, and
- feed the needy and clothe them, and make good cheer to all men, high and
- low, rich and unrich; and thereafter he took counsel with them on many
- matters, and they marvelled at his wisdom and the keenness of his wit;
- and so it was, that some were but half pleased thereat, whereas they saw
- that their will was like to give way before his in all matters. But the
- wiser of them rejoiced in him, and looked for good days while his life
- lasted.
- Now of the deeds that he did, and his joys and his griefs, the tale shall
- tell no more; nor of how he saw Langton again, and his dealings there.
- In Stark-wall he dwelt, and reigned a King, well beloved of his folk,
- sorely feared of their foemen. Strife he had to deal with, at home and
- abroad; but therein he was not quelled, till he fell asleep fair and
- softly, when this world had no more of deeds for him to do. Nor may it
- be said that the needy lamented him; for no needy had he left in his own
- land. And few foes he left behind to hate him.
- As to the Maid, she so waxed in loveliness and kindness, that it was a
- year's joy for any to have cast eyes upon her in street or on field. All
- wizardry left her since the day of her wedding; yet of wit and wisdom she
- had enough left, and to spare; for she needed no going about, and no
- guile, any more than hard commands, to have her will done. So loved she
- was by all folk, forsooth, that it was a mere joy for any to go about her
- errands. To be short, she was the land's increase, and the city's
- safeguard, and the bliss of the folk.
- Somewhat, as the days passed, it misgave her that she had beguiled the
- Bear-folk to deem her their God; and she considered and thought how she
- might atone it.
- So the second year after they had come to Stark-wall, she went with
- certain folk to the head of the pass that led down to the Bears; and
- there she stayed the men-at-arms, and went on further with a two score of
- husbandmen whom she had redeemed from thralldom in Stark-wall; and when
- they were hard on the dales of the Bears, she left them there in a
- certain little dale, with their wains and horses, and seed-corn, and iron
- tools, and went down all bird-alone to the dwelling of those huge men,
- unguarded now by sorcery, and trusting in nought but her loveliness and
- kindness. Clad she was now, as when she fled from the Wood beyond the
- World, in a short white coat alone, with bare feet and naked arms; but
- the said coat was now embroidered with the imagery of blossoms in silk
- and gold, and gems, whereas now her wizardry had departed from her.
- So she came to the Bears, and they knew her at once, and worshipped and
- blessed her, and feared her. But she told them that she had a gift for
- them, and was come to give it; and therewith she told them of the art of
- tillage, and bade them learn it; and when they asked her how they should
- do so, she told them of the men who were abiding them in the mountain
- dale, and bade the Bears take them for their brothers and sons of the
- ancient Fathers, and then they should be taught of them. This they
- behight her to do, and so she led them to where her freedmen lay, whom
- the Bears received with all joy and loving-kindness, and took them into
- their folk.
- So they went back to their dales together; but the Maid went her ways
- back to her men-at-arms and the city of Stark-wall.
- Thereafter she sent more gifts and messages to the Bears, but never again
- went herself to see them; for as good a face as she put on it that last
- time, yet her heart waxed cold with fear, and it almost seemed to her
- that her Mistress was alive again, and that she was escaping from her and
- plotting against her once more.
- As for the Bears, they throve and multiplied; till at last strife arose
- great and grim betwixt them and other peoples; for they had become mighty
- in battle: yea, once and again they met the host of Stark-wall in fight,
- and overthrew and were overthrown. But that was a long while after the
- Maid had passed away.
- Now of Walter and the Maid is no more to be told, saving that they begat
- between them goodly sons and fair daughters; whereof came a great lineage
- in Stark-wall; which lineage was so strong, and endured so long a while,
- that by then it had died out, folk had clean forgotten their ancient
- Custom of king-making, so that after Walter of Langton there was never
- another king that came down to them poor and lonely from out of the
- Mountains of the Bears.
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