CHAPTER 8
The Lady Maketh an End of Her Tale
"Well, my friend, after we had lived thus a long time, we set out oneday to seek to the Well at the World's End, each of us signed andmarked out for the quest by bearing such-like beads as thou and I bothbear upon our necks today. Once again of all that befell us on thatquest I will tell thee naught as now: because to that Well have I tobring thee: though myself, belike, I need not its waters again."
Quoth Ralph: "And must thou lead me thy very self, mayest thou notabide in some safe place my going and returning? So many and sore asthe toils and perils of the way may be." "What!" she said, "and howshall I be sundered from thee now I have found thee? Yea, and whoshall lead thee, thou lovely boy? Shall it be a man to bewray thee, ora woman to bewray me? Yet need we not go tomorrow, my beloved, nor formany days: so sweet as we are to each other.
"But in those past days it was needs must we begin our quest before theburden of years was over heavy upon us. Shortly to say it, we foundthe Well, and drank of its waters after abundant toil and peril, asthou mayst well deem. Then the life and the soul came back to us, andthe past years were as naught to us, and my youth was renewed in me,and I became as thou seest me to-day. But my fellow was as a woman offorty summers again, strong and fair as I had seen her when she cameinto the garden in the days of my Queenhood, and thus we returned tothe House of the Sorceress, and rested there for a little from ourtravel and our joy.
"At last, and that was but some five years ago, the Teacher said to me:'Sister, I have learned thee all that thine heart can take of me, andthou art strong in wisdom, and moreover again shall it be with thee, asI told of thee long ago, that no man shall look on thee that shall notlove thee. Now I will not seek to see thy life that is coming, norwhat thine end shall be, for that should belike be grievous to both ofus; but this I see of thee, that thou wilt now guide thy life not as Iwill, but as thou wilt; and since my way is not thy way, and that I seethou shalt not long abide alone, now shall we sunder; for I am mindedto go to the most ancient parts of the world, and seek all theinnermost of wisdom whiles I yet live; but with kings and champions andthe cities of folk will I have no more to do: while thou shalt not beable to refrain from these. So now I bid thee farewell.'
"I wept at her words, but gainsaid them naught, for I wotted that shespake but the truth; so I kissed her, and we parted; she went her waysthrough the wildwood, and I abode at the House of the Sorceress, andwaited on the wearing of the days.
"But scarce a month after her departure, as I stood by the thresholdone morning amidst of the goats, I saw men come riding from out thewood; so I abode them, and they came to the gate of the garth and therelighted down from their horses, and they were three in company; and noone of them was young, and one was old, with white locks flowing downfrom under his helm: for they were all armed in knightly fashion, butthey had naught but white gaberdines over their hauberks, with nocoat-armour or token upon them. So they came through the garth-gateand I greeted them and asked them what they would; then the old manknelt down on the grass before me and said: 'If I were as young as I amold my heart would fail me in beholding thy beauty: but now I will askthee somewhat: far away beyond the forest we heard rumours of a womandwelling in the uttermost desert, who had drunk of the Well at theWorld's End, and was wise beyond measure. Now we have set ourselves toseek that woman, and if thou be she, we would ask a question of thywisdom.'
"I answered that I was even such as they had heard of, and bade themask.
"Said the old man:
"'Fifty years ago, when I was yet but a young man, there was a fairwoman who was Queen of the Land of the Tower and whom we loved sorelybecause we had dwelt together with her amidst tribulation in the desertand the wildwood: and we are not of her people, but a fellowship offree men and champions hight the Men of the Dry Tree: and we hopedthat she would one day come back and dwell with us and be our Lady andQueen: and indeed trouble seemed drawing anigh her, so that we mighthelp her and she might become our fellow again, when lo! she vanishedaway from the folk and none knew where she was gone. Therefore a bandof us of the Dry Tree swore an oath together to seek her till we foundher, that we might live and die together: but of that band of one scoreand one, am I the last one left that seeketh; for the rest are dead, orsick, or departed: and indeed I was the youngest of them. But forthese two men, they are my sons whom I have bred in the knowledge ofthese things and in the hope of finding tidings of our Lady and Queen,if it were but the place where her body lieth. Thou art wise: knowestthou the resting place of her bones?"
"When I had heard the tale of the old man I was moved to my inmostheart, and I scarce knew what to say. But now this long while fear wasdead in me, so I thought I would tell the very sooth: but I said first:'Sir, what I will tell, I will tell without beseeching, so I pray theestand up.' So did he, and I said: 'Geoffrey, what became of the whitehind after the banners had left the wildwood'? He stared wild at me,and I deemed that tears began to come into his eyes; but I said again:'What betid to dame Joyce's youngest born, the fair little maiden thatwe left sick of a fever when we rode to Up-castle?' Still he saidnaught but looked at me wondering: and said: 'Hast thou ever againseen that great old oak nigh the clearing by the water, the half ofwhich fell away in the summer-storm of that last July?'
"Then verily the tears gushed out of his eyes, and he wept, for as oldas he was; and when he could master himself he said: 'Who art thou?Who art thou? Art thou the daughter of my Lady, even as these are mysons?' But I said: 'Now will I answer thy first question, and tellthee that the Lady thou seekest is verily alive; and she has thriven,for she has drunk of the Well at the World's End, and has put from herthe burden of the years. O Geoffrey, and dost thou not know me?' AndI held out my hand to him, and I also was weeping, because of mythought of the years gone by; for this old man had been that swain whohad nigh died for me when I fled with my husband from the old king; andhe became one of the Dry Tree, and had followed me with kind serviceabout the woods in the days when I was at my happiest.
"But now he fell on his knees before me not like a vassal but like alover, and kissed my feet, and was beside himself for joy. And hissons, who were men of some forty summers, tall and warrior-like, kissedmy hands and made obeisance before me.
"Now when we had come to ourselves again, old Geoffrey, who was nownaught but glad, spake and said: 'It is told amongst us that when ourhost departed from the Land of the Tower, after thou hadst taken thydue seat upon the throne, that thou didst promise our chieftains howthou wouldst one day come back to the fellowship of the Dry Tree anddwell amongst us. Wilt thou now hold to thy promise?' I said: 'OGeoffrey, if thou art the last of those seekers, and thou wert but aboy when I dwelt with you of old, who of the Dry Tree is left toremember me?' He hung his head awhile then, and spake: 'Old are wegrown, yet art thou fittest to be amongst young folk: unless mine eyesare beguiled by some semblance which will pass away presently.' 'Nay,'quoth I, 'it is not so; as I am now, so shall I be for many and many aday.' 'Well,' said Geoffrey, 'wherever thou mayst be, thou shalt beQueen of men.'
"'I list not to be Queen again,' said I. He laughed and said: 'I wotnot how thou mayst help it.'
"I said: 'Tell me of the Dry Tree, how the champions have sped, andhave they grown greater or less.' Said he: 'They are warriors andchampions from father to son; therefore have they thriven not overwell; yet they have left the thick of the wood, and built them a greatcastle above the little town hight Hampton; so that is now calledHampton under Scaur, for upon the height of the said Scaur is ourcastle builded: and there we hold us against the Burg of the FourFriths which hath thriven greatly; there is none so great as the Burgin all the lands about.'
"I said: 'And the Land of the Tower, thriveth the folk thereof atall?' 'Nay,' he said, 'they have been rent to pieces by folly and warand greediness: in the Great City are but few people, grass grows inits streets; the merchants wend not the ways that lead thither. Naughtthriveth ther
e since thou stolest thyself away from them.'
"'Nay,' I said, 'I fled from their malice, lest I should have beenbrought out to be burned once more; and there would have been none torescue then.' 'Was it so?' said old Geoffrey; 'well it is all one now;their day is done.'
"'Well,' I said, 'come into my house, and eat and drink therein andsleep here to-night, and to-morrow I shall tell thee what I will do.'
"Even so they did; and on the morrow early I spake to Geoffrey andsaid: 'What hath befallen the Land of Abundance, and the castle my lordbuilt for me there; which we held as our refuge all through the War ofthe Tower, both before we joined us to you in the wildwood, andafterwards?' He said: 'It is at peace still; no one hath laid hand onit; there is a simple folk dwelling there in the clearing of the wood,which forgetteth thee not; though forsooth strange tales are told ofthee there; and the old men deem that it is but a little since thouhast ceased to come and go there; and they are ready to worship thee assomewhat more than the Blessed Saints, were it not for the Fathers ofthe Thorn who are their masters.'
"I pondered this a while, and then said: 'Geoffrey, ye shall bring mehence away to the peopled parts, and on the way, or when we are comeamongst the cities and the kingdoms, we will settle it whither I shallgo. See thou! I were fain to be of the brotherhood of the Dry Tree;yet I deem it will scarce be that I shall go and dwell therestraightway.'
"Therewith the old man seemed content; and indeed now that the firstjoy of our meeting, when his youth sprang up in him once more, wasover, he found it hard to talk freely with me, and was downcast and shybefore me, as if something had come betwixt us, which had made ourlives cold to each other.
"So that day we left the House of the Sorceress, which I shall not seeagain, till I come there hand in hand with thee, beloved. When we cameto the peopled parts, Geoffrey and his sons brought me to the Land ofAbundance, and I found it all as he had said to me: and I took up mydwelling in the castle, and despised not those few folk of the land,but was kind to them: but though they praised my gifts, and honouredme as the saints are honoured, and though they loved me, yet it waswith fear, so that I had little part with them. There I dwelt then;and the book which thou didst read there, part true and part false, andaltogether of malice against me, I bought of a monk who came our way,and who at first was sore afeared when he found that he had come to mycastle. As to the halling of the Chamber of Dais, I have told theebefore how my lord, the King's Son, did do make it in memory of thewilderness wherein he found me, and the life of thralldom from which hebrought me. There I dwelt till nigh upon these days in peace andquiet: not did I go to the Dry Tree for a long while, though many ofthem sought to me there at the Castle of Abundance; and, woe worth thewhile! there was oftenest but one end to their guesting, that of allgifts, they besought me but of one, which, alack! I might not givethem: and that is the love that I have given to thee, beloved.--And,oh! my fear, that it will weigh too light with thee, to win me pardonof thee for all that thou must needs pardon me, ere thou canst give meall thy love, that I long for so sorely."