Said she: Well then, that help shall ye have,
were it but for the sake of that little Viridis whereof
my child hath told me. Wherefore abide tidings
of me for a fourteen days, and seek not to me ere then;
and meantime fear not, nor doubt me, for many messengers
I have, and ever may I do somewhat if the end of the
tale is to be told in these woodlands: and I
deem these friends will not be hard to draw hither,
for it is most like that they be thinking of you and
longing for you, as ye for them. And now I will
depart on my business, which is yours, and do ye be
happy to-day in the woodland, and to-morrow in the
meadows and by the water; and let no trouble weigh
down your happy days.
Therewith she flitted away from them, when she had
kissed them both. But when she was gone they
fared away together deep into the wood, and were exceeding
merry disporting them, and on their return they gat
them venison for their meat, and so came back to the
House of Love when the moon was up and shining brightly.
CHAPTER XXXI. HABUNDIA COMETH WITH TIDINGS OF THOSE DEAR FRIENDS
Wore the days thenceforth merrily; and one day it
was delight in the wide meads, and another they went
a long way west along the water-side, and so into
another meadow-plain, smaller than their home-plain,
which Birdalone had never erst come into; and three
eyots lay off it, green and tree-beset, whereto they
swam out together. Then they went into the wood
thereby in the heat of the afternoon, and so wore
the day, that they deemed themselves belated, and lay
there under a thorn-bush the night through.
Another day Birdalone took her mate over on to Green
Eyot and Rock Eyot, and showed him all the places
she was used to haunt. And they had their fishing-gear
with them, and angled off the eyots a good part of
the day, and had good catch, and swam back therewith
merrily. And Birdalone laughed, and said that
it seemed to her as if once again she were ransoming
her skin of the witch-wife by that noble catch.
Divers times also they fared into the wood, and thrice
they lay out the night there in some woodlawn where
was water; and on one of these times it happed that
Arthur awoke in the grey dawn, and lay open-eyed but
not moving for a little; and therewith he deemed he
saw the gleam of war-gear in the thicket. So
he kept as still as he might, but gat his sword out
of its sheath without noise, and then leapt up suddenly,
and sprang thitherward whereas he had seen that token,
and again saw armour gleam and heard some man crashing
through the underwood, for all was gone in one moment.
So he woke up Birdalone, and they bended their bows
both of them, and searched the thicket thereabouts
heedfully, arrow on string, but found nought fiercer
than a great sow and her farrow. So came the
full day, and they gat them back to their meadows
and their house; but thereafter were they warier in
going about the woodland.
