GOES the tale back now to the time when the kingship of Child
Christopher was scarce more than one month old; and tells that as
the King sat with his Queen in the cool of his garden on a morning of
August, there came to him a swain of service, who did him to wit that an
outland lord was come, and would see him and give him a message.
So the King bade bring him in to the garden to him straight-way; so the
man went, and came back again leading in a knight somewhat stricken in
years, on whose green surcoat was beaten a golden lion.
He came to those twain and did obeisance to them, but spake, as it
seemed, to Goldilind alone: "Lady, and Queen of Meadham," said he, "it
is unto thee, first of all, that mine errand is."
Then she spoke and said: "Welcome to thee, Sir Castellan of
Greenharbour, we shall hear thy words gladly."
Said the new-comer: "Lady, I am no longer the Burgreve of Greenharbour,
but Sir Guisebert, lord of the Green March, and thy true servant and a
suitor for thy grace and pardon."
"I pardon thee not, but thank thee for what thou didst of good to me,"
said Goldilind, "and I think that now thine errand shall be friendly."
Then turned the Green Knight to the King, and he said: "Have I thy leave
to speak, Lord King?" and he smiled covertly.
But Christopher looked on the face and coat-armour of him, and called
him to mind as the man who had stood betwixt him and present death
that morning in the porch of the Littledale house; so he looked on him
friendly, and said: "My leave thou hast, Sir Knight, to speak fully and
freely, and that the more as meseemeth I saw thee first when thou hadst
weaponed men at thy back, and wert turning their staves away from my
breast."
"Even so it is, Lord King," said the Knight; "and to say sooth, I fear
thee less for thy kingship, than because I wot well that thou mayst
lightly take me up by the small of my back and cast me over thy shoulder
if thou have a mind therefor."
Christopher laughed at his word, and bade him sit down upon the green
grass and tell his errand straightway; and the Knight tarried not, but
spake out: "Queen of Meadham, I am a friend and fellow, and in some sort
a servant, to Earl Geoffrey, Regent of Meadham, whom thou knowest; and
he hath put a word in my mouth which is both short and easy for me to
tell. All goes awry in Meadham now, and men are arming against each
other, and will presently be warring, but if thou look to it; because
all this is for lack of thee. But if thou wilt vouchsafe to come to
Meadhamstead, and sit on thy throne for a little while, commanding and
forbidding; and if thou wilt appoint one of the lords for thine Earl
there, and others for thy captains, and governors and burgreves and so
forth; then if the people see thee and hear thee, the swords will go
into their sheaths, and the spears will hang on the wall again, and we
shall have peace in Meadham, for all will do thy bidding. Wherefore,
Lady and Queen, I beseech thee to come to us, and stave off the riot and
ruin. What sayest thou?"
Goldilind made answer in a while: "Sir Guisebert, true it is that I long
to see my people, and to look once more on my father's house, and the
place where he was born and died. But how know I but this is some wile
of Earl Geoffrey, for he hath not been abounding in trustiness toward
us?"
But Sir Guisebert swore on his salvation that there was no guile
therein, and they were undone save Goldilind came unto them. Then spake
Christopher: "Sir Knight, I am willing to pleasure my Lady, who, as
I can see, longeth to behold her own land and people; and also by thy
voice and thy face I deem that thou art not lying unto me, and that no
harm will befall the Lady; yet will I ask thee right out what thou and
thy lord would think thereof if she come into Meadham accompanied; to
wit, if I rode with her, and had five hundreds of good riders at my
back, would ye have guesting for so many and such stark lads?"
The Knight took up the word eagerly, and said: "Wilt thou but come,
dear lord, and bring a thousand or more, then the surer and the safer it
would be for us."
Said the King, smiling: "Well, it shall be thought on; and meantime be
thou merry with us; for indeed I deem of thee, that but for thy helping
my life had been cast away that morning in Littledale."
So they made much of the Meadham man for three days, and thereafter
they rode into Meadham and to Meadhamstead, Christopher, and Jack of the
Tofts, and Goldilind, in all honour and triumph, they and seven hundreds
of spears, and never were lords received with such joy and kindness
as were they, but it were on the day when Christopher and his entered
Oakenham.
The Earl Geoffrey was not amongst them that met them; but whenas they
sat at the banquet in the hall, and Goldilind was in the high-seat,
gloriously clad and with the kingly crown on her head, there came a
tall man up to the dais, grey-headed and keen-eyed, and he was unarmed,
without so much as a sword by his side, and clad in simple black; and he
knelt before Goldilind, and laid his head on her lap, and spake: "Lady
and Queen, here is my head to do with as thou wilt; for I have been thy
dastard, and I crave thy pardon, if so it may be, for I am Geoffrey."
She looked kindly on him, and raised him up; and then she turned to the
chief of the serving-men, and said: "Fetch me a sword with its sheath
and its girdle, and see that it be a good blade, and all well-adorned,
both sword and sheath and girdle." Even so it was done; and when she had
the sword, she bade Sir Geoffrey kneel again before her, and she girt
him with the said sword and spake: "Sir Geoffrey, all the wrong which
thou didest to me, I forgive it thee and forget it; but wherein thou
hast done well, I will remember it, for thou hast given me a mighty King
to be my man; nay, the mightiest and the loveliest on earth; wherefore I
bless thee, and will make thee my Earl to rule all Meadham under me, if
so be the folk gainsay it not. Wherefore now let these folk fetch thee
seemly garments and array thee, and then come sit amongst us, and eat
and drink on this high day; for a happy day it is when once again I sit
in my father's house, and see the faces of my folk that loveth me."
She spake loud and clear, so that most folk in the hall heard her; and
they rejoiced at her words, for Sir Geoffrey was no ill ruler, but wise
and of great understanding, keen of wit and deft of word, and a mighty
warrior withal; only they might not away with it that their Lady and
Queen had become as alien to them. So when they heard her speak her
will, they shouted for joy of the peace and goodwill that was to be.
There then sat Geoffrey at the banquet; and Christopher smiled on him,
and said: "See now, lord, if I have not done as thou badest when
thou gavest me the treasure of Greenharbour, for I have brought the
wolf-heads to thy helping and not to thy scathing. Do thou as much for
me, and be thou a good earl to thy Lady and mine, and then shalt thou
yet live and die a happy man, and my friend. Or else--"
"There shall be no else, Lord King," quoth Geoffrey; "all men henceforth
shall tell of me as a true man."
So they were blithe and joyous together. But a seven days thence was
the Allmen's Mote gathered to the wood-side without Meadhamstead, and
thronged it was: and there Goldilind stood up before all the folk
and named Sir Geoffrey for Earl to rule the land under her, and none
gainsaid it, for they knew him meet thereto. Then she named from the
baronage and knighthood such men as she had been truly told were meet
thereto to all the offices of the kingdom, and there was none whom
she named but was well-pleasing to the folk; for she had taken counsel
beforehand with all the wisest men of all degrees.
As for herself, all loved and worshipped her; and this alone seemed hard
unto them, that she must needs go back to Oakenrealm in a few days: but
when she heard them murmur thereat, she behight them, that once in every
year she would come into Meadham and spend one whole month therein; and,
were it possible, ever should that be the month of May. So when they
heard that, they all praised her, and were the more content. This custom
she kept ever thereafter, and she lay in with her second son in the city
of Meadhamstead, so that he was born therein; and she named him to be
King after her, to the great joy of that folk; and he grew up strong and
well-liking, and came to the kingship while his mother was yet alive,
and was a good man and well-beloved of his folk.
Before she turned back with her man, she let seek out Aloyse, and when
she came before her, gave her gifts and bade her come back with her to
Oakenham and serve her there if she would: and the damsel was glad, for
there in Meadhamstead was she poor and not well seen to, whereas it was
rumoured of her that she had been one of the jailers of Goldilind.
When they came back to Oakenham, there they met Gandolf, Baron of
Brimside, now whole of his hurts, and the King greeted him kindly, and
did well to him all his life; and found him ever a true man.
Good thenceforward was the life of Child Christopher and Goldilind:
whiles indeed they happed on unpeace or other trouble; but never did
fair love and good worship depart from them, either of each unto each,
or of the whole folk unto them twain.
To no man did Christopher mete out worse than his deserts, nay, to most
far better he meted: no man he feared, nor hated any save the tormentors
of poor folk; and but a little while abided his hatred of those, for
it cut short their lives, so that they were speedily done with and
forgotten. And when he died a very old man but one year after Goldilind
his dear, no king that ever lived was so bewailed by his folk as was
Child Christopher.