The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris (love letters to the dead txt) 📗

shalt be when two score years and ten of happy life have worn for thee.  Tell me, am I now aught like to thy mother in the flesh?

How hast thou frighted me, mother, said Birdalone; I thought that my friend had forsaken me, and that perchance the new-comer was another witch like unto the old one, and that I was never to be at rest and happy.  But as to my mother in the flesh, nay, thou art not now wholly like unto her; and sooth to say I shall be fainer when thou hast thine own shape of me young back again, for I love thee not so much as now thou art.

The wood-wife laughed: Well, she said, thou shalt not see over-much of me in this shape; and that the less because of something I shall now tell thee, to wit, that I have been thinking the matter over, and I would have thee leave us twain together alone before the young man awaketh.  I would have thee get thee home and abide him there; it shall not be long I promise thee; and this also, that he shall come home to thee sound in body and whole in limb.

Birdalone’s countenance fell, and she said: Why this second mind, mother? why, I pray thee?  Said Habundia: I fear for thy love lest he be not strong enough to open his eyes upon thy face; but after he hath been a day in the woods, and I have spoken to him diversely and cheered him with the hope of meeting thee, he may well be strong enough to seek thee for a mile’s length, and find thine house first and then thee.  So now wilt thou obey me?  Nay, if thou must needs weep, I will be gone into the thicket till thou hast done, thou wilful!  Birdalone smiled through her tears, and said: I pray thee pardon my wilfulness, mother, and I will depart without turning back into the cave.  Nay, said Habundia, there is no need for so much haste as that: I will in now, and do my leechdoms with the sick man.  But do thou go across the stream, thou barefoot, and thou wilt find on the other side, by the foot of the quicken-tree yonder, honeycombs and white bread and a bicker of wild goats’ milk.  Bathe thee then if thou wilt, and bring those matters over hither; and then shalt thou go in and kiss thy mate’s sick face with thy fresh one, and thereafter shall we sit here by the ripple of the water and break our fast; and lastly, thou shalt go in and kiss again and then take to the road.  But tell me, deemest thou surely that thou canst find it again?  Yea, surely, mother, said Birdalone; I am wood-woman enough for that; and now I will do all thy will.  And therewith she stepped out lightly on to the greensward and sought up the stream till she found a smooth-grounded pool meet for her bath, and when that was done, she fetched the victual and came back to the wood-wife; then they two sat down together, and ate and drank while the water rippled at their feet.  But when they were done, Birdalone gat her into the cave again, and kissed the sleeping man fondly, and came forth lightly and stood a moment before the wood-wife, and said: Tell me this at least, mother, when shall he be there?  To-morrow quoth the wood-wife; and, for my part, I would keep thee within doors and abide him there, lest there be trouble; for he may not yet be as strong as the strongest.  Birdalone hung down her head and answered not, but said presently: Farewell, wood-mother, and be thou blessed.  Then she took up her bow and betook her lightly to the woodland way, and the wood-wife stood looking at her till the thicket had hidden her, and then turned back and went into the cave.

p. 489CHAPTER XXV.  THE WOOD-WIFE HEALETH AND TENDETH THE BLACK SQUIRE.

She stood over Arthur for a minute or two, and then stooped down and whispered a word in his ear, and presently he stirred on the bed and half opened his eyes, but straightway turned on his side, as if to gather sleep to him, but she took him by the shoulder and said in a clear voice: Nay, knight, nay; hast thou not slept enough? is there nought for thee to do?  He sat up in the bed and rubbed his eyes, and his face was come to its wholesome colour, and his eyes looked out quietly and calmly as he looked about the cave and saw the wood-wife standing by him; and he spake in a voice which was somewhat weak, but wherein was no passion of rage or woodness: Where am I then? and who art thou, dame?  She said: Thou art in a cave of the woodland, and I am for one thing thy leech, and meseemeth thou desirest to eat and to drink.  He smiled and nodded his head; and she fetched him the milk, and he drank a long draught, and sighed thereafter, as one who is pleased; and she smiled on him, and fetched him the bread and the honey, and he ate and drank again, and then lay down and fell fast asleep.  And she suffered his slumber for two hours or so, and then awoke him again; and again he asked where he was and what was she, but she said as before.  And said she: The next thing thou hast to do is to arise, as thou well mayest, and take this raiment, which is fair and clean, and go wash thee in the brook and come back to me; and then we will talk, and thou shalt tell me of how it was with thee, and peradventure I may tell thee somewhat of how it shall be with thee.  As she spoke she went to a coffer which stood in a nook of the cave, and drew forth from it a shirt and hosen and shoon, and a surcoat and hood of fine black cloth, and a gilded girdle and a fair sword, red-sheathed, and said: These may serve thy turn for the present, so take them and don them, and thou shalt look like a squire at least, if not a knight.

So he arose as one in a dream and went out; but as he passed by her she saw something gleaming on his breast, and noted that it was Birdalone’s fair sapphire ring which hung about his neck; so she smiled, and said under her breath: Crafty is my dear daughter!  But that shall save me some words at least.  And she abided his return.

Anon he cometh back clad in the fair raiment, with the sword by his side; and the wood-wife smote her palms together and cried out: Now indeed thou art fair and well-liking, and a fair lady might well take pleasure in beholding thee.

But his brow was knit, and he looked sullen and angry, and he said: What is all this play? and where gattest thou this ring which I found e’en now about my neck?  And who art thou, and why have I been brought hither?

His eyes looked fiercely on her as he spake, holding out his palm with the ring lying thereon.  But the wood-wife answered: Many questions, fair youth! but I will tell thee: the play is for thine healing and pleasure, whereas both sick hast thou been and sorry.  As to the ring, it is thou hast got it and not I.  But I will tell thee this, that I have seen it on the finger of a fair damsel who haunteth the woodland not far hence.  As to what I am, that were a long tale to tell if I told it all; but believe this meanwhile, that I am the lady and mistress of hereabouts, and am not without power over my folk and my land.  And as to why thou wert brought hither, I brought thee because I had no better house handy for a sick man to lie in.

Then Arthur stood a long while considering the ring that lay on his palm, and at last he put his hand on the wood-wife’s shoulder, and looked into her face beseechingly, and said: O mother, if thou be mighty be merciful withal, and have pity on me!  Thou callest me a youth, and so I may be in regard to thee; but I tell thee it is five long years and there hath been no other thought in my heart but what was loathsome to me, and it hath worn and wasted my youth, so that it waneth and withereth and is nought.  O, if thou be mighty, bring me to her that I may see her at least one time before I die.  And therewith he fell down on his knees before her, and kissed the hem of her gown, and wept.  But she drew him up and looked on him with the merry countenance of a kind old woman, and said: Nay, nay, I am not so hard to be won to thy helping that thou needest pray so sore and weep: here need we tarry no longer, and if thou wilt come with me we shall go seek the damsel who bore this ring, though how it should come to thee why should I know?  Neither do I know if the said ring-bearer be the one woman whom thou needest.  But I will tell thee at once that she is a dear friend of mine.

Then Arthur threw his arms about her, and kissed her cheeks and blessed her, while she laughed on him and said: Nay, fair sir, if thou wilt do so much with the withered branch, what wilt thou with the blossom of the tree?  And he was abashed before her, but hope made his heart to dance.

So the wood-wife took up her bow, slung her quiver at her back, and girt her short sword to her, and then led him forth, and so into the thicket out of the dale and forth into the oaken bent, and lightly she led him thereafter through the woodland.

p. 493CHAPTER XXVI.  THE BLACK SQUIRE TELLETH THE WOOD-WIFE OF HIS DOINGS SINCE BIRDALONE WENT FROM THE CASTLE OF THE QUEST.

As they went Habundia said to Arthur: Now shalt thou talk and tell for the shortening of the way, and let us know somewhat of thy story.  But first I must tell thee, for thou mayest not know it, so witless as then thou wast, that yesterday we found thee down in the dale yonder, playing the string-play sweetly indeed, but otherwise dight like a half beast more than a man, so that we wondered at thee and pitied thee.

Arthur knit his brows as if he strove with some memory and might not master it; then he said: Thou sayest We, who then was the other?  Said Habundia: I had a dear friend with me.  Quoth he: And did she pity me also?  Yea, said the wood-wife, else scarce had she been a friend to me.  O let us on swiftly, said Arthur, so long as the time may be!  And they quickened their pace and ate up the way speedily.

Presently spake the wood-wife again: Now for the tale of thee, fair sir; yet will I shorten it somewhat by telling thee that I know thy name, that thou art Arthur the Black Squire of the Castle of the Quest.  He stared at that word, and said: How knewest thou this? how couldst thou guess it, who hast never seen me erst?  A friend told me, said she; too long it were as now to tell thee thereof.  Rather do thou tell me how thou didst fare when ye found thy friend gone from the castle that time ye came home from the winning of the Red Hold.

Arthur stared astonished, and said: What is it?  Dost thou verily know my love? or art thou a sorceress and knowest somewhat of me by spell-work?  I am somewhat more than a sorceress, may-happen, said the wood-wife; but heed it not, since I am thy friend to-day, but tell me what I ask, that I may have all the tale of thee; it will serve for the shortening of the way.  Said Arthur: And who but I needeth it as short as may be? so stand we not loitering here, and I will talk as we wend on speedily.

On they sped therefore, and said Arthur: How did I fare? as one stunned, mother, and knew not what had happened; and when I heard their babble of how she had done wrong here and right there, I was driven half mad by it, so that I hastened back to the Red Hold, and became the captain of Greenford, to hunt down their scattered foemen; for I