But I could scarce say so before the old merchant rushed at the red
knight with a yell, who without moving slew his horse with an axe, and
then the men at arms speared the old man, slaying him as one would an
otter or a rat.
Afterwards they were going to set on me, but the red knight held them
back, saying: 'Nay, I am enough,' and we spurred on our horses.
As we met, I felt just as if some one had thrown a dull brown cloth over
my eyes, and I felt the wretched spear-point slip off his helm; then I
felt a great pain somewhere, that did not seem to be in my body, but in
the world, or the sky, or something of that sort.
And I know not how long that pain seemed to last now, but I think years,
though really I grew well and sane again in a few weeks.
And when I woke, scarce knowing whether I was in the world or heaven or
hell, I heard some one singing.
I tried to listen but could not, because I did not know where I was, and
was thinking of that; I missed verse after verse of the song, this song,
till at last I saw I must be in the King's palace.
There was a window by my bed, I looked out at it, and saw that I was high
up; down in the street the people were going to and fro, and there was a
knot of folks gathered about a minstrel, who sat on the edge of a
fountain, with his head laid sideways on his shoulder, and nursing one
leg on the other; he was singing only, having no instrument, and he sang
the song I had tried to listen to, I heard some of it now:
'He was fair and free,
At every tourney
He wan the degree,
Sir Guy the good knight.
'He wan Alys the fair,
The King's own daughtere,
With all her gold hair,
That shone well bright.
'He saved a good Knight,
Who also was wight,
And had winges bright
On a blue shield.
'And he slew the Knight
Of the High Gard in fight,
In red weed that was dight
In the open field.'
I fell back in my bed and wept, for I was weak with my illness; to think
of this! truly this man was a perfect knight, and deserved to win Alys.
Ah! well! but was this the glory I was to have, and no one believed that
I was a King's son.
And so I passed days and nights, thinking of my dishonour and misery, and
my utter loneliness; no one cared for me; verily, I think, if any one had
spoken to me lovingly, I should have fallen on his neck and died, while I
was so weak.
But I grew strong at last, and began to walk about, and in the Palace
Pleasaunce, one day, I met Sir Guy walking by himself.
So I told him how that I thanked him with all my heart for my life, but
he said it was only what a good knight ought to do; for that hearing the
mad enterprise I had ridden on, he had followed me swiftly with a few
knights, and so saved me.
He looked stately and grand as he spoke, yet I did not love him, nay,
rather hated him, though I tried hard not to do so, for there was some
air of pitiless triumph and coldness of heart in him that froze me; so
scornfully, too, he said that about 'my mad enterprise,' as though I
_must_ be wrong in everything I did. Yet afterwards, as I came to know
more, I pitied him instead of hating; but at that time I thought his life
was without a shadow, for I did not know that the Lady Alys loved him
not.
And now I turned from him, and walked slowly up and down the
garden-paths, not exactly thinking, but with some ghosts of former
thoughts passing through my mind. The day, too, was most lovely, as it
grew towards evening, and I had all the joy of a man lately sick in the
flowers and all things; if any bells at that time had begun to chime, I
think I should have lain down on the grass and wept; but now there was
but the noise of the bees in the yellow musk, and that had not music
enough to bring me sorrow.
And as I walked I stooped and picked a great orange lily, and held it in
my hand, and lo! down the garden walk, the same fair damozel that had
before this given me good counsel in the hall.
Thereat I was very glad, and walked to meet her smiling, but she was very
grave, and said:
'Fair sir, the Lady Alys des roses wishes to see you in her chamber.'
I could not answer a word, but turned, and went with her while she walked
slowly beside me, thinking deeply, and picking a rose to pieces as she
went; and I, too, thought much, what could she want me for? surely, but
for one thing; and yet--and yet.
But when we came to the lady's chamber, behold! before the door, stood a
tall knight, fair and strong, and in armour, save his head, who seemed to
be guarding the door, though not so as to seem so to all men.
He kissed the damozel eagerly, and then she said to me, 'This is Sir
William de la Fosse, my true knight;' so the knight took my hand and
seemed to have such joy of me, that all the blood came up to my face for
pure delight.
But then the damozel Blanche opened the door and bade me go in while she
abode still without; so I entered, when I had put aside the heavy silken
hangings that filled the doorway.
And there sat Alys; she arose when she saw me, and stood pale, and with
her lips apart, and her hands hanging loose by her side.
And then all doubt and sorrow went quite away from me; I did not even
feel drunk with joy, but rather felt that I could take it all in, lose no
least fragment of it; then at once I felt that I was beautiful, and brave
and true; I had no doubt as to what I should do now.
I went up to her, and first kissed her on the forehead, and then on the
feet, and then drew her to me, and with my arms round about her, and her
arms hanging loose, and her lips dropped, we held our lips together so
long that my eyes failed me, and I could not see her, till I looked at
her green raiment.
And she had never spoken to me yet; she seemed just then as if she were
going to, for she lifted her eyes to mine, and opened her mouth; but she
only said, 'Dear Lionel,' and fell forward as though she were faint; and
again I held her, and kissed her all over; and then she loosed her hair
that it fell to her feet, and when I clipped her next, she threw it over
me, that it fell all over my scarlet robes like trickling of some golden
well in Paradise.
Then, within a while, we called in the Lady Blanche and Sir William de la
Fosse, and while they talked about what we should do, we sat together and
kissed; and what they said, I know not.
But I remember, that that night, quite late, Alys and I rode out side by
side from the good city in the midst of a great band of knights and men-
at-arms, and other bands drew to us as we went, and in three days we
reached Sir William's castle which was called 'La Garde des Chevaliers.'
And straightway he caused toll the great bell, and to hang out from the
highest tower a great banner of red and gold, cut into so many points
that it seemed as if it were tattered; for this was the custom of his
house when they wanted their vassals together.
And Alys and I stood up in the tower by the great bell as they tolled it;
I remember now that I had passed my hand underneath her hair, so that the
fingers of it folded over and just lay on her cheek; she gazed down on
the bell, and at every deafening stroke she drew in her breath and opened
her eyes to a wide stare downwards.
But on the very day that we came, they arrayed her in gold and flowers
(and there were angels and knights and ladies wrought on her gold
raiment), and I waited for an hour in the chapel till she came, listening
to the swallows outside, and gazing with parted lips at the pictures on
the golden walls; but when she came, I knelt down before the altar, and
she knelt down and kissed my lips; and then the priest came in, and the
singers and the censer-boys; and that chapel was soon confusedly full of
golden raiment, and incense, and ladies and singing; in the midst of
which I wedded Alys. And men came into Knights' Gard till we had two
thousand men in it, and great store of munitions of war and provisions.
But Alys and I lived happily together in the painted hall and in the fair
water-meadows, and as yet no one came against us.
And still her talk was, of deeds of arms, and she was never tired of
letting the serpent rings of my mail slip off her wrist and long hand,
and she would kiss my shield and helm and the gold wings on my surcoat,
my mother's work, and would talk of the ineffable joy that would be when
we had fought through all the evil that was coming on us.
Also she would take my sword and lay it on her knees and talk to it,
telling it how much she loved me.
Yea in all things, O Lord God, Thou knowest that my love was a very
child, like thy angels. Oh! my wise soft-handed love! endless passion!
endless longing always satisfied!
Think you that the shouting curses of the trumpet broke off our love, or
in any ways lessened it? no, most certainly, but from the time the siege
began, her cheeks grew thinner, and her passionate face seemed more and
more a part of me; now too, whenever I happened to see her between the
grim fighting she would do nothing but kiss me all the time, or wring my
hands, or take my head on her breast, being so eagerly passionate that
sometimes a pang shot through me that she might die.
Till one day they made a breach in the wall, and when I heard of it for
the first time, I sickened, and could not call on God; but Alys cut me a
tress of her yellow hair and tied it in my helm, and armed me, and saying
no word, led me down to the breach by the hand, and then went back most
ghastly pale.
So there on the one side of the breach were the spears of William de la
Fosse and Lionel of the gold wings, and on the other the spears of King
Gilbert and Sir Guy le bon amant, but the King himself was not there; Sir
Guy was.
Well,--what would you have? in this world never yet could two thousand
men stand against twenty thousand; we were almost pushed back with their
spear-points, they were so close together:--slay six of them and the
spears were as thick as ever; but if two of our men fell there was
straightway a hole.
Yet just at the end of this we drove them back in one charge two yards
beyond the breach, and behold in the front rank, Sir Guy, utterly
fearless, cool, and collected; nevertheless, with one stroke I broke his
helm, and he fell to the ground before the two armies, even as I fell
that day in the lists; and we drove them twenty feet farther, yet they
saved Sir Guy.
Well, again,--what would you have? They drove us back again, and they
drove us into our inner castle walls. And I was the last to go in, and
just as I was entering, the boldest and nearest of the enemy clutched at
my love's hair in my helm, shouting out quite loud, 'Whore's hair for
John the goldsmith!'
At the hearing of which blasphemy the Lord gave me such strength, that I
turned and caught him by the ribs with my left hand, and with my right,
by sheer strength, I tore off his helm and part of his nose with it, and
then swinging him round about, dashed his brains out against the castle-
walls.
Yet thereby was I nearly slain, for they surrounded me, only Sir William
and the others charged out and rescued me, but hardly.
May the Lord help all true men! In an hour we were all fighting pell
mell on the walls of the castle itself, and some were slain outright, and
some were wounded, and some yielded themselves and received mercy; but I
had scarce the heart to fight any more, because I thought of Alys lying
with her face upon the floor and her agonised hands outspread, trying to
clutch something, trying to hold to the cracks of the boarding. So when
I had seen William de la Fosse slain by many men, I cast my shield and
helm over the battlements, and gazed about for a second, and lo! on one
of the flanking towers, my gold wings still floated by the side of
William's white lion, and in the other one I knew my poor Love, whom they
had left quite alone, was lying.
So then I turned into a dark passage and ran till I reached the tower
stairs, up that too I sprang as though a ghost were after me, I did so
long to kiss her again before I died, to soothe her too, so that she
should not feel this day, when in the aftertimes she thought of it, as
wholly miserable to her. For I knew they would neither slay her nor
treat her cruelly, for in sooth all loved her, only they would make her
marry Sir Guy le bon amant.
In the topmost room I found her, alas! alas! lying on the floor, as I
said; I came to her and kissed her head as she lay, then raised her up;
and I took all my armour off and broke my sword over my knee.
And then I led her to the window away from the fighting, from whence we
only saw the quiet country, and kissed her lips till she wept and looked
no longer sad and wretched; then I said to her:
'Now, O Love, we must part for a little, it is time for me to go and
die.'
'Why should you go away?' she said, 'they will come here quick enough, no
doubt, and I shall have you longer with me if you stay; I do not turn
sick at the sight of blood.'
'O my poor Love!' And I could not go because of her praying face; surely
God would grant anything to such a face as that.
'Oh!' she said, 'you will let me have you yet a little longer, I see;
also let me kiss your feet.'
She threw herself down and kissed them, and then did not get up again at
once, but lay there holding my feet.
And while she lay there, behold a sudden tramping that she did not hear,
and over the green hangings the gleam of helmets that she did not see,
and then one pushed aside the hangings with his spear, and there stood
the armed men.
'Will not somebody weep for my darling?'
She sprang up from my feet with a low, bitter moan, most terrible to
hear, she kissed me once on the lips, and then stood aside, with her dear
head thrown back, and holding her lovely loose hair strained over her
outspread arms, as though she were wearied of all things that had been or
that might be.
Then one thrust me through the breast with a spear, and another with his
sword, which was three inches broad, gave me a stroke across the thighs
that hit to the bone; and as I fell forward one cleft me to the teeth
with his axe.
And then I heard my darling shriek.