mercy, nor quail before their uplifted weapons; nor,
to be short, shall he heed them more than if they
still were stones unchanged. Moreover, when he
hath said his say, then shall these wights throng
about him and offer him gold and gems, and all the
wealth of the earth; and if that be not enough, they
shall bring him the goodliest of women, with nought
lacking in her shape, but lacking all raiment, so
that he shall see her as she is verily shapen.
But whoso shall take any one of all these gifts is
lost for ever, and shall become one of that Stony
People; and whoso naysayeth them all until the cock
crow, and abideth steady by his one craving, shall
win fulfilment thereof, and, as some say, all those
gifts aforesaid; for that the Stony People may not
abide the day to take them back again.
He was silent therewith, and nought spake Birdalone,
but looked down on the ground, and longing encompassed
her soul. Then the priest spake again:
This were a fair adventure, lady, for a hapless one,
but for the happy it were a fool’s errand.
She answered not, and they parted for that time.
But the next week, there being yet no tidings come
to hand, Birdalone prayed the castellan to take her
out-a-gates again, that she might once more behold
the mountains, and the gates thereof; and he yeasaid
her asking, and went with her, well accompanied, as
before; but this time, by Birdalone’s will,
they rode straight to the plain aforesaid, and again
she looked into that dale of the Greywethers from the
knoll. Somewhat belated they were, so that they
might not get back to the castle before dusk, wherefore
again they lay out in the wildwood, but there lacked
somewhat of the triumph and joyance which they had
had that other day. They came back to the castle
on the morrow somewhat after noon, and found no news
there; nor, to say sooth, did Birdalone look for any;
and her heart was heavy.
CHAPTER VII. BIRDALONE BEGUILETH THE PRIEST TO HELP HER TO OUTGOING
Now had the time so worn that the season was in the
first days of August, and weariness and heartsickness
increased on Birdalone again, and she began to look
pined and pale. Yet when she spake of the tarrying
of the Champions both to the castellan and Sir Leonard
the priest (who was the wiser man of the two), each
said the same thing, to wit, that it was no marvel
if they were not yet come, seeing whatlike the adventure
was; and neither of those two seemed in anywise to
have lost hope.
Thrice in these last days did Birdalone go out-a-gates
with Sir Aymeris and his company; and the last of
the three times the journey was to the knoll that
looked into the Black Valley; but now was Birdalone’s
pleasure of the sight of it afar off marred by her
longing to be amidst thereof; yet she did not show
that she was irked by the refraining of her desire
to enter therein, and they turned, and came home safely
to the castle.
