Chapter Chapter 11 · WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE MISTRESS

. WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE MISTRESS

It was but a little after noon when Walter left the Maid behind: he

steered south by the sun, as the Maid had bidden him, and went swiftly;

for, as a good knight wending to battle, the time seemed long to him till

he should meet the foe.

So an hour before sunset he saw something white and gay gleaming through

the boles of the oak-trees, and presently there was clear before him a

most goodly house builded of white marble, carved all about with knots

and imagery, and the carven folk were all painted of their lively

colours, whether it were their raiment or their flesh, and the housings

wherein they stood all done with gold and fair hues. Gay were the

windows of the house; and there was a pillared porch before the great

door, with images betwixt the pillars both of men and beasts: and when

Walter looked up to the roof of the house, he saw that it gleamed and

shone; for all the tiles were of yellow metal, which he deemed to be of

very gold.

All this he saw as he went, and tarried not to gaze upon it; for he said,

Belike there will be time for me to look on all this before I die. But

he said also, that, though the house was not of the greatest, it was

beyond compare of all houses of the world.

Now he entered it by the porch, and came into a hall many-pillared, and

vaulted over, the walls painted with gold and ultramarine, the floor

dark, and spangled with many colours, and the windows glazed with knots

and pictures. Midmost thereof was a fountain of gold, whence the water

ran two ways in gold-lined runnels, spanned twice with little bridges of

silver. Long was that hall, and now not very light, so that Walter was

come past the fountain before he saw any folk therein: then he looked up

toward the high-seat, and himseemed that a great light shone thence, and

dazzled his eyes; and he went on a little way, and then fell on his

knees; for there before him on the high-seat sat that wondrous Lady,

whose lively image had been shown to him thrice before; and she was clad

in gold and jewels, as he had erst seen her. But now she was not alone;

for by her side sat a young man, goodly enough, so far as Walter might

see him, and most richly clad, with a jewelled sword by his side, and a

chaplet of gems on his head. They held each other by the hand, and

seemed to be in dear converse together; but they spake softly, so that

Walter might not hear what they said, till at last the man spake aloud to

the Lady: "Seest thou not that there is a man in the hall?"

"Yea," she said, "I see him yonder, kneeling on his knees; let him come

nigher and give some account of himself."

So Walter stood up and drew nigh, and stood there, all shamefaced and

confused, looking on those twain, and wondering at the beauty of the

Lady. As for the man, who was slim, and black-haired, and

straight-featured, for all his goodliness Walter accounted him little,

and nowise deemed him to look chieftain-like.

Now the Lady spake not to Walter any more than erst; but at last the man

said: "Why doest thou not kneel as thou didst erewhile?"

Walter was on the point of giving him back a fierce answer; but the Lady

spake and said: "Nay, friend, it matters not whether he kneel or stand;

but he may say, if he will, what he would have of me, and wherefore he is

come hither."

Then spake Walter, for as wroth and ashamed as he was: "Lady, I have

strayed into this land, and have come to thine house as I suppose, and if

I be not welcome, I may well depart straightway, and seek a way out of

thy land, if thou wouldst drive me thence, as well as out of thine

house."

Thereat the Lady turned and looked on him, and when her eyes met his, he

felt a pang of fear and desire mingled shoot through his heart. This

time she spoke to him; but coldly, without either wrath or any thought of

him: "Newcomer," she said, "I have not bidden thee hither; but here mayst

thou abide a while if thou wilt; nevertheless, take heed that here is no

King's Court. There is, forsooth, a folk that serveth me (or, it may be,

more than one), of whom thou wert best to know nought. Of others I have

but two servants, whom thou wilt see; and the one is a strange creature,

who should scare thee or scathe thee with a good will, but of a good will

shall serve nought save me; the other is a woman, a thrall, of little

avail, save that, being compelled, she will work woman's service for me,

but whom none else shall compel . . . Yea, but what is all this to thee;

or to me that I should tell it to thee? I will not drive thee away; but

if thine entertainment please thee not, make no plaint thereof to me, but

depart at thy will. Now is this talk betwixt us overlong, since, as thou

seest, I and this King's Son are in converse together. Art thou a King's

Son?"

"Nay, Lady," said Walter, "I am but of the sons of the merchants."

"It matters not," she said; "go thy ways into one of the chambers."

And straightway she fell a-talking to the man who sat beside her

concerning the singing of the birds beneath her window in the morning;

and of how she had bathed her that day in a pool of the woodlands, when

she had been heated with hunting, and so forth; and all as if there had

been none there save her and the King's Son.

But Walter departed all ashamed, as though he had been a poor man thrust

away from a rich kinsman's door; and he said to himself that this woman

was hateful, and nought love-worthy, and that she was little like to

tempt him, despite all the fairness of her body.

No one else he saw in the house that even; he found meat and drink duly

served on a fair table, and thereafter he came on a goodly bed, and all

things needful, but no child of Adam to do him service, or bid him

welcome or warning. Nevertheless he ate, and drank, and slept, and put

off thought of all these things till the morrow, all the more as he hoped

to see the kind maiden some time betwixt sunrise and sunset on that new

day.