The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 1

  Ralph Meets With Love in the Wilderness

  He woke up while it was yet night, and knew that he had been awakenedby a touch; but, like a good hunter and warrior, he forebore to startup or cry out till sleep had so much run off him that he could tellsomewhat of what was toward. So now he saw the Lady bending over him,and she said in a kind and very low voice: "Rise up, young man, riseup, Ralph, and say no word, but come with me a little way into the woodere dawn come, for I have a word for thee."

  So he stood up and was ready to go with her, his heart beating hard forjoy and wonder. "Nay," she whispered, "take thy sword and war-gearlest ill befall: do on thine hauberk; I will be thy squire." And sheheld his war-coat out for him to do on. "Now," she said, still softly,"hide thy curly hair with the helm, gird thy sword to thee, and comewithout a word."

  Even so he did, and therewithal felt her hand take his (for it was darkas they stepped amidst the trees), and she led him into the SeventhHeaven, for he heard her voice, though it were but a whisper, as itwere a caress and a laugh of joy in each word.

  She led him along swiftly, fumbling nought with the paths betwixt thepine-tree boles, where it was as dark as dark might be. Every minutehe looked to hear her say a word of why she had brought him thither,and that then she would depart from him; so he prayed that the silenceand the holding of his hand might last a long while--for he mightthink of naught save her--and long it lasted forsooth, and still shespake no word, though whiles a little sweet chuckle, as of the gardenwarbler at his softest, came from her lips, and the ripple of herraiment as her swift feet drave it, sounded loud to his eager ears inthe dark, windless wood.

  At last, and it was more than half-an-hour of their walking thus, itgrew lighter, and he could see the shape of her alongside of him; andstill she held his hand and glided on swifter and swifter, as hethought; and soon he knew that outside the wood dawn was giving placeto day, and even there, in the wood, it was scarce darker than twilight.

  Yet a little further, and it grew lighter still, and he heard thethrostles singing a little way off, and knew that they were on the edgeof the pine-wood, and still her swift feet sped on till they came to alittle grassy wood-lawn, with nought anear it on the side away from thewood save maples and thorn-bushes: it was broad daylight there, thoughthe sun had not yet arisen.

  There she let fall his hand and turned about to him and faced himflushed and eager, with her eyes exceeding bright and her lips halfopen and quivering. He stood beholding her, trembling, what foreagerness, what for fear of her words when he had told her of hisdesire. For he had now made up his mind to do no less. He put hishelm from off his head and laid it down on the grass, and he notedtherewith that she had come in her green gown only, and had left mantleand cote hardie behind.

  Now he stood up again and was just going to speak, when lo! she putboth her palms to her face, and her bosom heaved, and her shoulderswere shaken with sobs, and she burst out a weeping, so that the tearsran through her fingers. Then he cast himself on the ground beforeher, and kissed her feet, and clasped her about the knees, and laid hischeek to her raiment, and fawned upon her, and cried out many an idleword of love, and still she wept a while and spake not. At last shereached her hand down to his face and fondled it, and he let his lipslie on the hand, and she suffered it a while, and then took him by thearm and raised him up and led him on swiftly as before; and he knew notwhat to do or say, and durst by no means stay her, and could frame noword to ask her wherefore.

  So they sped across a waste not much beset with trees, he silent, shenever wearying or slacking her pace or faltering as to the way, tillthey came into the thick wood again, and ever when he would have spokenshe hushed him, with "Not yet! Not yet!" Until at last when the sunhad been up for some three hours, she led him through a hazel copse,like a deep hedge, into a cleared grassy place where were great greystones lying about, as if it had been the broken doom-ring of aforgotten folk. There she threw herself down on the grass and buriedher face amidst the flowers, and was weeping and sobbing again and hebending over her, till she turned to him and drew him down to her andput her hands to his face, and laid her cheeks all wet with tears tohis, and fell to kissing him long and sweetly, so that in his turn hewas like to weep for the very sweetness of love.

  Then at last she spake: "This is the first word, that now I havebrought thee away from death; and so sweet it is to me that I canscarce bear it."

  "Oh, sweet to me," he said, "for I have waited for thee many days." Andhe fell to kissing and clipping her, as one who might not be satisfied.At last she drew herself from him a little, and, turning on him a facesmiling with love, she said: "Forbear it a little, till we talktogether." "Yea," quoth he, "but may I hold thine hand awhile?" "Noharm in that," she said, laughing, and she gave him her hand and spake:

  "I spake it that I have brought thee from death, and thou hast asked meno word concerning what and how." "I will ask it now, then," said he,"since thou wilt have it so." She said: "Dost thou think that he wouldhave let thee live?"

  "Who," said he, "since thou lettest me live?"

  "He, thy foeman, the Knight of the Sun," she said. "Why didst thou notflee from him before? For he did not so much desire to slay thee, butthat he would have had thee depart; but if thou wert once at his house,he would thrust a sword through thee, or at the least cast thee intohis prison and let thee lie there till thy youth be gone--or so itseemed to me," she said, faltering as she looked on him.

  Said Ralph: "How could I depart when thou wert with him? Didst thounot see me there? I was deeming that thou wouldst have me abide."

  She looked upon him with such tender love that he made as if he wouldcast himself upon her; but she refrained him, and smiled and said: "Ah,yes, I saw thee, and thought not that thou wouldst sunder thyself fromme; therefore had I care of thee." And she touched his cheek with herother hand; and he sighed and knit his brows somewhat, and said: "Butwho is this man that he should slay me? And why is he thy tyrant, thatthou must flee from him?"

  She laughed and said: "Fair creature, he is my husband."

  Then Ralph flushed red, and his visage clouded, and he opened his mouthto speak; but she stayed him and said: "Yet is he not so much myhusband but that or ever we were bedded he must needs curse me anddrive me away from his house." And she smiled, but her face reddened sodeeply that her grey eyes looked strange and light therein.

  But Ralph leapt up, and half drew his sword, and cried out loud: "WouldGod I had slain him! Wherefore could I not slay him?" And he strode upand down the sward before her in his wrath. But she leaned forward tohim and laughed and said: "Yet, O Champion, we will not go back to him,for he is stronger than thou, and hath vanquished thee. This is adesert place, but thou art loud, and maybe over loud. Come rest by me."

  So he came and sat down by her, and took her hand again and kissed thewrist thereof and fondled it and said: "Yea, but he desireth theesorely; that was easy to see. It was my ill-luck that I slew him not."

  She stroked his face again and said: "Long were the tale if I toldthee all. After he had driven me out, and I had fled from him, he fellin with me again divers times, as was like to be; for his brother isthe Captain of the Dry Tree; the tall man whom thou hast seen with me:and every time this baron hath come on me he has prayed my love, as onewho would die despaired if I granted it not, but O my love with thebright sword" (and she kissed his cheek therewith, and fondled his handwith both her hands), "each time I said him nay, I said him nay." Andagain her face burned with blushes.

  "And his brother," said Ralph, "the big captain that I have come acrossthese four times, doth he desire thee also?" She laughed and said:"But as others have, no more: he will not slay any man for my sake."

  Said Ralph: "Didst thou wot that I was abiding thy coming at theCastle of Abundance?" "Yea," she said, "have I not told thee that Ibade Roger lead thee thither?" Then she said softly: "That was afterthat first time we met; after I had ridden away on the hors
e of thatbutcher whom thou slayedst."

  "But why camest thou so late?" said he; "Wouldst thou have come if Ihad abided there yet?" She said: "What else did I desire but to bewith thee? But I set out alone looking not for any peril, since ourriders had gone to the north against them of the Burg: but as I drewnear to the Water of the Oak, I fell in with my husband and that otherman; and this time all my naysays were of no avail, and whatsoever Imight say he constrained me to go with them; but straightway they fellout together, and fought, even as thou sawest." And she looked at himsweetly, and as frankly as if he had been naught but her dearestbrother.

  But he said: "It was concerning thee that they fought: hast thou knownthe Black Knight for long?"

  "Yea," she said, "I may not hide that he hath loved me: but he hathalso betrayed me. It was through him that the Knight of the Sun draveme from him. Hearken, for this concerneth thee: he made a tale of meof true and false mingled, that I was a wise-wife and an enchantress,and my lord trowed in him, so that I was put to shame before all thehouse, and driven forth wrung with anguish, barefoot and bleeding."

  He looked and saw pain and grief in her face, as it had been the shadowof that past time, and the fierceness of love in him so changed hisface, that she arose and drew a little way from him, and stood theregazing at him. But he also rose and knelt before her, and reached upfor her hands and took them in his and said: "Tell me truly, andbeguile me not; for I am a young man, and without guile, and I lovethee, and would have thee for my speech-friend, what woman soever maybe in the world. Whatever thou hast been, what art thou now? Art thougood or evil? Wilt thou bless me or ban me? For it is the truth thatI have heard tales and tales of thee: many were good, though it maybestrange; but some, they seemed to warn me of evil in thee. O look atme, and see if I love thee or not! and I may not help it. Say once forall, shall that be for my ruin or my bliss? If thou hast been evil,then be good this one time and tell me."

  She neither reddened now, nor paled at his words, but her eyes filledwith tears, and ran over, and she looked down on him as a woman lookson a man that she loves from the heart's root, and she said: "O mylord and love, may it be that thou shalt find me no worse to thee thanthe best of all those tales. Forsooth how shall I tell thee of myself,when, whatever I say, thou shalt believe every word I tell thee? But Omy heart, how shouldest thou, so sweet and fair and good, be taken withthe love of an evil thing? At the least I will say this, thatwhatsoever I have been, I am good to thee--I am good to thee, and willbe true to thee."

  He drew her down to him as he knelt there, and took his arms about her,and though she yet shrank from him a little and the eager flame of hislove, he might not be gainsayed, and she gave herself to him and lether body glide into his arms, and loved him no less than he loved her.And there between them in the wilderness was all the joy of love thatmight be.