The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 23

  The Leechcraft of the Lady

  Meanwhile she went to Ralph and stood by him, who now began to stiragain; and she knelt down by him and kissed his face gently, and roseup hastily and stood a little aloof again.

  Now Ralph sat up and looked about him, and when he saw the Lady hefirst blushed red, and then turned very pale; for the full life was inhim again, and he knew her, and love drew strongly at hisheart-strings. But she looked on him kindly and said to him: "Howfares it with thee? I am sorry of thy hurt which thou hast had forme." He said: "Forsooth, Lady, a chance knock or two is no greatmatter for a lad of Upmeads. But oh! I have seen thee before." "Yea,"she said, "twice before, fair knight." "How is that?" he said; "once Isaw thee, the fairest thing in the world, and evil men would have ledthee to slaughter; but not twice."

  She smiled on him still more kindly, as if he were a dear friend, andsaid simply: "I was that lad in the cloak that ye saw in the Flower deLuce; and afterwards when ye, thou and Roger, fled away from the Burgof the Four Friths. I had come into the Burg with my captain of war atthe peril of our lives to deliver four faithful friends of mine whowere else doomed to an evil death."

  He said nought, but gazed at her face, wondering at her valiancy andgoodness. She took him by the hand now, and held it without speakingfor a little while, and he sat there still looking up into her face,wondering at her sweetness and his happiness. Then she said, as shedrew her hand away and spake in such a voice, and so looking at him,that every word was as a caress to him: "Thy soul is coming back tothee, my friend, and thou art well at ease: is it not so?"

  "O yea," he said, "and I woke up happily e'en now; for me-dreamed thatmy gossip came to me and kissed me kindly; and she is a fair woman, butnot a young woman."

  As he spoke the knight, who had come nearly noiselessly over the grass,stood by them, holding his helm full of water, and looking grimly uponthem; but the Lady looked up at him with wide eyes wonderingly, andRalph, beholding her, deemed that all he had heard of her goodness wasbut the very sooth. But the knight spake: "Young man, thou hastfought with me, thou knowest not wherefore, and grim was my mood whenthou madest thine onset, and still is, so that never but once wilt thoube nigher thy death than thou hast been this hour. But now I havegiven thee life because of the asking of this lady; and therewith Igive thee leave to come thy ways with us: nay, rather I command thee tocome, for thou art my prisoner, to be kept or ransomed, or set free asI will. But my will is that thou shalt not have thine armour andweapons; and there is a cause for this, which mayhappen I will tellthee hereafter. But now I bid thee drink of this water, and then dooff thine helm and hauberk and give me thy sword and dagger, and gowith us peaceably; and be not overmuch ashamed, for I have overcome menwho boasted themselves to be great warriors."

  So Ralph drank of the water, and did off his helm, and cast water onhis face, and arose, and said smiling: "Nay, my master, I am noughtashamed of my mishaps: and as to my going with thee and the Lady, thouhast heard me say under thy dagger that I would not forbear to followher; so I scarce need thy command thereto." The knight scowled on himand said: "Hold thy peace, fool! Thou wert best not stir my wrathagain." "Nay," said Ralph, "thou hast my sword, and mayst slay me ifthou wilt; therefore be not word-valiant with me."

  Said the Knight of the Sun: "Well, well, thou hast the right of itthere. Only beware lest thou try me overmuch. But now must we setforth on our road; and here is work for thee to do: a hundred yardswithin the thick wood in a straight line from the oak-tree thou shaltfind two horses, mine and the knight's who fell before me; go thou andbring them hither; for I will not leave thee with my lady, lest I haveto slay thee in the end, and maybe her also."

  Ralph nodded cheerfully, and set off on his task, and was the readiertherein because the Lady looked on him kindly and compassionately as hewent by her. He found the horses speedily, a black horse that was ofthe Black Knight, and a bay of the Knight of the Sun, and he came backwith them lightly.

  But when he came to the oak-tree again, lo, the knight and the Ladyboth kneeling over the body of the Black Knight, and Ralph saw that theKnight of the Sun was sobbing and weeping sorely, so that he deemedthat he was taking leave of his friend that lay dead there: but whenRalph had tied up those other two steeds by Silverfax and drawn rear tothose twain, the Knight of the Sun looked up at him, and spake in acheerful voice: "Thou seemest to be no ill man, though thou hast comeacross my lady; so now I bid thee rejoice that there is a good knightmore in the world than we deemed e'en now; for this my friend Walterthe Black is alive still." "Yea," said the Lady, "and belike he shalllive a long while yet."

  So Ralph looked, and saw that they had stripped the knight of hishauberk and helm, and bared his body, and that the Lady was dressing agreat and sore wound in his side; neither was he come to himself again:he was a young man, and very goodly to look on, dark haired andstraight of feature, fair of face; and Ralph felt a grief at his heartas he beheld the Lady's hands dealing with his bare flesh, thoughnought the man knew of it belike.

  As for the Knight of the Sun, he was no more grim and moody, butsmiling and joyous, and he spake and said: "Young man, this shallstand thee in good stead that I have not slain my friend this bout.Sooth to say, it might else have gone hard with thee on the way to myhouse, or still more in my house. But now be of good heart, for unlessof thine own folly thou run on the sword's point, thou mayst yet liveand do well." Then he turned to the Lady and said: "Dame, for as gooda leech as ye be, ye may not heal this man so that he may sit in hissaddle within these ten days; and now what is to do in this matter?"

  She looked on him with smiling lips and a strange light in her eyes,and said: "Yea, forsooth, what wilt thou do? Wilt thou abide here byWalter thyself alone, and let me bring the imp of Upmeads home to ourhouse? Or wilt thou ride home and send folk with a litter to us? Orshall this youngling ride at all adventure, and seek to Sunway throughthe blind woodland? Which shall it be?"

  The knight laughed outright, and said: "Yea, fair one, this is muchlike to the tale of the carle at the ferry with the fox, and the goat,and the cabbage."

  There was scarce a smile on her face as she said gently: "One thing isto be thought of, that Walter's soul is not yet so fast in his bodythat either thou or some rough-handed leech may be sure of healing him;it must be this hand, and the learning which it hath learned which mustdeal with him for a while." And she stretched out her arm over thewounded man, with the fingers pointing down the water, and reddenedwithal, as if she felt the hearts' greediness of the two men who werelooking on her beauty.

  The big knight sighed, and said: "Well, unless I am to kill him overagain, there is nothing for it but our abiding with him for the nextfew hours at least. To-morrow is a new day, and fair is thewoodland-hall of summer-tide; neither shall water fail us. But as tovictual, I wot not save that we have none."

  The Lady laughed, and said to Ralph; "Who knoweth what thou mayst findif thou go to the black horse and look into the saddle-bags which I sawupon him awhile agone? For indeed we need somewhat, if it were but tokeep the life in the body of this wounded man."

  Ralph sprang up and turned to the horse, and found the saddle-bags onhim, and took from them bread and flesh, and a flask of good wine, andbrought them to the Lady, who laughed and said: "Thou art a goodseeker and no ill finder." Then she gave the wounded man to drink ofthe wine, so that he stirred somewhat, and the colour came into hisface a little. Then she bade gather store of bracken for a bed for theBlack Knight, and Ralph bestirred himself therein, but the Knight ofthe Sun sat looking at the Lady as she busied herself with his friend,and gloom seemed gathering on him again.

  But when the bracken was enough, the Lady made a bed deftly andspeedily; and between the three they laid the wounded man thereon, whoseemed coming to himself somewhat, and spake a few words, but thosenothing to the point. Then the Lady took her gay embroidered cloak,which lay at the foot of the oak tree, and cast it over him and, asRalp
h deemed, eyed him lovingly, and belike the Knight of the Sunthought in likewise, for he scowled upon her; and for awhile but littlewas the joyance by the ancient oak, unless it were with the Lady.