Tells the tale that in the country which lay south of Oakenrealm, and
was called Meadham, there was in these days a king whose wife was dead,
but had left him a fair daughter, who was born some four years after
King Christopher. A good man was this King Roland, mild, bounteous, and
no regarder of persons in his justice; and well-beloved he was of his
folk: yet could not their love keep him alive; for, whenas his daughter
was of the age of twelve years, he sickened unto death; and so, when he
knew that his end drew near, he sent for the wisest of his wise men,
and they came unto him sorrowing in the High House of his chiefest city,
which hight Meadhamstead. So he bade them sit down nigh unto his bed,
and took up the word and spake:
"Masters, and my good lords, ye may see clearly that a sundering is at
hand, and that I must needs make a long journey, whence I shall come
back never; now I would, and am verily of duty bound thereto, that I
leave behind me some good order in the land. Furthermore, I would that
my daughter, when she is of age thereto, should be Queen in Meadham, and
rule the land; neither will it be many years before she shall be of ripe
age for ruling, if ever she may be; and I deem not that there shall be
any lack in her, whereas her mother could all courtesy, and was as wise
as a woman may be. But how say ye, my masters?"
So they all with one consent said Yea, and they would ask for no better
king than their lady his daughter. Then said the King:
"Hearken carefully, for my time is short: Yet is she young and a maiden,
though she be wise. Now therefore do I need some man well looked to of
the folk, who shall rule the land in her name till she be of eighteen
winters, and who shall be her good friend and counsellor into all wisdom
thereafter. Which of you, my masters, is meet for this matter?"
Then they all looked one on the other, and spake not. And the King said:
"Speak, some one of you, without fear; this is no time for tarrying."
Thereon spake an elder, the oldest of them, and said: "Lord, this is
the very truth, that none of us here present are meet for this office:
whereas, among other matters, we be all unmeet for battle; some of us
have never been warriors, and other some are past the age for leading an
host. To say the sooth, King, there is but one man in Meadham who may do
what thou wilt, and not fail; both for his wisdom, and his might afield,
and the account which is had of him amongst the people; and that man is
Earl Geoffrey, of the Southern Marches."
"Ye say sooth," quoth the King; "but is he down in the South, or nigher
to hand?"
Said the elder: "He is as now in Meadhamstead, and may be in this
chamber in scant half an hour." So the King bade send for him, and there
was silence in the chamber till he came in, clad in a scarlet kirtle and
a white cloak, and with his sword by his side. He was a tall man,
bigly made; somewhat pale of face, black and curly of hair; blue-eyed,
thin-lipped, and hook-nosed as an eagle; a man warrior-like, and
somewhat fierce of aspect. He knelt down by the King's bedside, and
asked him in a sorrowful voice what he would, and the King said: "I ask
a great matter of thee, and all these my wise men, and I myself,
withal, deem that thou canst do it, and thou alone--nay, hearken: I am
departing, and I would have thee hold my place, and do unto my people
even what I would do if I myself were living; and to my daughter as
nigh to that as may be. I say all this thou mayst do, if thou wilt be as
trusty and leal to me after I am dead, as thou hast seemed to all men's
eyes to have been while I was living. What sayest thou?"
The Earl had hidden his face in the coverlet of the bed while the King
was speaking; but now he lifted up his face, weeping, and said: "Kinsman
and friend and King; this is nought hard to do; but if it were, yet
would I do it."
"It is well," said the King: "my heart fails me and my voice; so give
heed, and set thine ear close to my mouth: hearken, belike my daughter
Goldilind shall be one of the fairest of women; I bid thee wed her to
the fairest of men and the strongest, and to none other."
Thereat his voice failed him indeed, and he lay still; but he died not,
till presently the priest came to him, and, as he might, houselled him:
then he departed.
As for Earl Geoffrey, when the King was buried, and the homages done to
the maiden Goldilind, he did no worse than those wise men deemed of him,
but bestirred him, and looked full sagely into all the matters of the
kingdom, and did so well therein that all men praised his rule perforce,
whether they loved him or not; and sooth to say he was not much beloved.