บทที่ บทที่ 1 · OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHER

. OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHER

Awhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly city by

the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of five and

twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather

wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth, and

a kind; not of many words but courteous of speech; no roisterer, nought

masterful, but peaceable and knowing how to forbear: in a fray a perilous

foe, and a trusty war-fellow. His father, with whom he was dwelling

when this tale begins, was a great merchant, richer than a baron of the

land, a head-man of the greatest of the Lineages of Langton, and a

captain of the Porte; he was of the Lineage of the Goldings, therefore

was he called Bartholomew Golden, and his son Golden Walter.

Now ye may well deem that such a youngling as this was looked upon by all

as a lucky man without a lack; but there was this flaw in his lot,

whereas he had fallen into the toils of love of a woman exceeding fair,

and had taken her to wife, she nought unwilling as it seemed. But when

they had been wedded some six months he found by manifest tokens, that

his fairness was not so much to her but that she must seek to the

foulness of one worser than he in all ways; wherefore his rest departed

from him, whereas he hated her for her untruth and her hatred of him; yet

would the sound of her voice, as she came and went in the house, make his

heart beat; and the sight of her stirred desire within him, so that he

longed for her to be sweet and kind with him, and deemed that, might it

be so, he should forget all the evil gone by. But it was not so; for

ever when she saw him, her face changed, and her hatred of him became

manifest, and howsoever she were sweet with others, with him she was hard

and sour.

So this went on a while till the chambers of his father's house, yea the

very streets of the city, became loathsome to him; and yet he called to

mind that the world was wide and he but a young man. So on a day as he

sat with his father alone, he spake to him and said: "Father, I was on

the quays even now, and I looked on the ships that were nigh boun, and

thy sign I saw on a tall ship that seemed to me nighest boun. Will it

be long ere she sail?"

"Nay," said his father, "that ship, which hight the Katherine, will they

warp out of the haven in two days' time. But why askest thou of her?"

"The shortest word is best, father," said Walter, "and this it is, that I

would depart in the said ship and see other lands."

"Yea and whither, son?" said the merchant.

"Whither she goeth," said Walter, "for I am ill at ease at home, as thou

wottest, father."

The merchant held his peace awhile, and looked hard on his son, for there

was strong love between them; but at last he said: "Well, son, maybe it

were best for thee; but maybe also we shall not meet again."

"Yet if we do meet, father, then shalt thou see a new man in me."

"Well," said Bartholomew, "at least I know on whom to lay the loss of

thee, and when thou art gone, for thou shalt have thine own way herein,

she shall no longer abide in my house. Nay, but it were for the strife

that should arise thenceforth betwixt her kindred and ours, it should go

somewhat worse with her than that."

Said Walter: "I pray thee shame her not more than needs must be, lest, so

doing, thou shame both me and thyself also."

Bartholomew held his peace again for a while; then he said: "Goeth she

with child, my son?"

Walter reddened, and said: "I wot not; nor of whom the child may be."

Then they both sat silent, till Bartholomew spake, saying: "The end of it

is, son, that this is Monday, and that thou shalt go aboard in the small

hours of Wednesday; and meanwhile I shall look to it that thou go not

away empty-handed; the skipper of the Katherine is a good man and true,

and knows the seas well; and my servant Robert the Low, who is clerk of

the lading, is trustworthy and wise, and as myself in all matters that

look towards chaffer. The Katherine is new and stout-builded, and

should be lucky, whereas she is under the ward of her who is the saint

called upon in the church where thou wert christened, and myself before

thee; and thy mother, and my father and mother all lie under the chancel

thereof, as thou wottest."

Therewith the elder rose up and went his ways about his business, and

there was no more said betwixt him and his son on this matter.