The Water of the Wondrous Isles eBook

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.