Then came wild yelling words from the witch’s
mouth, and she cried: Go then, naked and outcast!
Go then, naked fool! and come back hither after thou
hast been under the hands of the pitiless! Ah,
it had been better for thee had I slain thee!
And therewith she whirled the sax over her head and
cast it at Birdalone. But now had the boat turned
its head toward the ness of Green Eyot and was swiftly
departing, so that Birdalone but half heard the last
words of the witch-wife, and the sax fell flashing
into the water far astern.
There the witch stood tossing her arms and screaming,
wordless; but no more of her saw Birdalone, for the
boat came round about the ness of Green Eyot, and
there lay the Great Water under the summer heavens
all wide and landless before her. And it was
now noon of day.
Here ends the First Part of the Water of the Wondrous
Isles, which is called Of the House of Captivity.
And now begins the Second Part, which is called Of
the Wondrous Isles.
So glided Birdalone over the lake and was come forth
from the House of Captivity; it might well be that
she was but swimming unto death; naked as she was,
fireless, foodless, and helpless, at the mercy of
mere sorcery. Yet she called to mind the word
of the wood-mother that they should meet again, and
took heart thereby; and she was glad in that she had
had her will, and shaken off the guile and thraldom
of the witch. Much she thought of the wood-mother,
and loved her, and wondered had she yet sought into
and seen her welfare by the burning of a hair of that
tress of hers; and therewith she looked on that tress
of Habundia’s hair and kissed it.
All day the Sending Boat sped on, and she saw no land
and nought to tell of. It was but wave and sky
and the familiar fowl of the lake, as coot, and mallard,
and heron, and now and then a swift wood-dove going
her ways from shore to shore; two gerfalcons she saw
also, an osprey, and a great ern on his errand high
up aloft.
Birdalone waked in her loneliness till the day was
spent, and somewhat worn of the night; then she fell
asleep for weariness; but so it was, that before dusk
she had deemed that a blue cloud lay before her in
the offing which moved not.
She slept the short night through, and was awakened
by the boat smiting against something, and when her
eyes opened she saw that she was come aland and that
the sun was just risen. She stood up, and for
the first minute wondered where she was, and she beheld
her nakedness and knew not what it meant; then she
loosened her hair, and shook its abundance all about
her, and thereafter she turned her eyes on this new
land and saw that it was fair and goodly. The
flowery grass came down to the very water, and first
was a fair meadow-land besprinkled with big ancient
trees; thence arose slopes of vineyard, and orchard
and garden; and, looking down on all, was a great White
House, carven and glorious. A little air of wind
had awakened with the sunrise, and bore the garden
sweetness down to her; and warm it was after the chill
of the wide water. No other land could she see
when she looked lakeward thence.
