initial commit of ebook 3055HEADmain

1 files changed, 5146 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/3055.txt b/3055.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e475916
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3055.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5146 @@
+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
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 3055.txt or 3055.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/5/3055
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+