Again laughed Birdalone, and said: Hearken,
whereto cometh all this kneeling and hand-kissing!
But bear in mind, fair lord, how once on a time thou
wouldst have me out-a-gates, would I, would I not,
and now, will I, will I not, thou wouldst keep me
within; so have times changed, and mayhappen they
may change yet again. But tell me, am I mistress
over my women to bid them what I will? Certes,
said he, and over all of us. Said she:
If then I bade them, some two or three, come with
me into the meadows and woods a half day’s journey
for our disport, how then? For that once, said
Sir Aymeris, I should bid them disobey their lady.
Said Birdalone: And how if they disobeyed thee,
and obeyed me? Quoth Sir Aymeris: If they
bring thee back safe, they may chance to sing to the
twiggen fiddle-bow, that they may be warned from such
folly; but if they come back without thee, by All-hallows
the wind of wrath shall sweep their heads off them!
Birdalone flushed red at his word, and was silent
a while; then she said, making cheerful countenance
again: Thou art a hard master, lord castellan;
but I must needs obey thee. Therefore I will
take thy bidding, and ride abroad in such wise that
I shall scare the land with an army, since no otherwise
may I look on the summer land. But to-day I
will not go, nor to-morrow belike; but some day soon.
And in good sooth I thank thee for thy heedful care
of me, and wish I were better worth it. Nay,
nay, thou shalt not kneel to me, but I to thee:
for thou art verily the master.
Therewith she rose from beside him, and knelt down
before him and took his hand and kissed it, and went
her ways, leaving him ravished with love of her.
But now she had no scorn of him, but deemed, as was
true, that he was both valiant and trusty and kind,
and she thanked him in her heart as well as in words.
CHAPTER IV. OF BIRDALONE’S FARING ABROAD
Indeed Birdalone longed on any terms to be out-a-gates
and to have some joy of the summer; for now she began
to see that she might have to abide some while ere
her friends should come to her in the Castle of the
Quest; and she was angry with herself that her longing
was thus wasting her, and she rebuked herself and
said: Where is now that Birdalone who let but
few days go by without some joyance of the earth and
its creatures? she who bore lightly the toil of a thrall,
and gibes and mocking and stripes? Surely this
is grievous folly, that I should be worsened since
I have come to be the friend of gentle ladies, and
noble champions, and mighty warriors. Had it
not been better to have abided under the witch-wife’s
hand? For not every day nor most days did she
torment me. But now for many days there has
been pain and grief and heart-sickness hour by hour;
and every hour have I dreaded the coming of the next
hour, till I know not how to bear it.
So she strove with herself, and became of better heart,
and set herself strongly to the learning of the clerkly
lore; she gathered her wits together, and no longer
looked for every day and every hour to bring about
the return of the Champions, nor blamed the day and
the hour because they failed therein, and in all wise
she strove to get through the day unworn by vain longing.
