The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris (good books to read for beginners TXT) 📖

peril we may have to face?

Dear art thou, she said, and my very friend, but tell me: how sorry wouldst thou be to leave thine own land and follow after me for the sake of one who is neither thine own true love nor of thy kindred?  Said he: Not so sorry that I should grudge against thee thereafter.  Moreover if that much of sorrow came to me, I should deem it not ill, lest I grow so over-happy that the luck rise up against me and undo me.

She said, smiling on him kindly: Meseems that I am over-happy, whereas I have such dear cherishing of noble friends.  But now I will tell thee all, and maybe thou wilt love me the less for the telling.  In these woods here, and lady and mistress of them, dwelleth one who is not of the race of Adam.  And she helped and cherished me and gave me wisdom when I was tormented and accursed, and she it was who saved me from the evil witch, and gave me the good hap to meet your loves and to fetch you to their helping; and twice hath she saved me from mortal peril otherwise.  And she hath found me my love, thy brother Arthur, and delivered him from unwit and wanhope; and she it is who drew all you hither unto us, and who delivered you from the felons who had mastered you.  And I have sworn unto her that I would never wholly sunder me from her; and how shall I break mine oath and grieve her, even had I the will thereto, as God wot I have not?  And she wept therewith.

But Hugh kissed her and said: Birdalone, my dear, why weepest thou?  Didst thou not hear my word, that thy people should be my people, and thy land my land, and that whither thou goest I will go?  Dost thou not trow me then?  Or how deemest thou I may tear thy friend Viridis from thee, when she hath just found thee?  But tell me, hast thou in thy mind any dwelling-place other than this?

Yea, she said: I may not depart very far from this forest of Evilshaw lest I grieve my wisdom-mother overmuch.  But if one go westward through the wood, he shall happen at last, when he cometh forth of it, on a good town hight Utterhay, which lieth on the very edge thereof.  There was I born, and there also I look to find three dear and trusty friends to whom I owe return of their much kindness.  It is a noble town in a pleasant land, and thou and my lord Arthur may well win both honour and worship and lordship there.  And wholly I trust in thy word that thou wilt not grudge against me for dragging thee thither.

Therewith she gave him her hand, smiling on him, though there was yet trouble in her face.  But he took the hand and held it, and laughed merrily and said: Lo now! how good it is for friends to take counsel together!  What better may we do than go with thee thither?  And how greatly will Viridis rejoice when she heareth of this.  Now will I go and tell her and the others.

Go then, dear lad, she said; but as to the matter of thy fetching thy children and livelihood hither, that may be not so hard nor so perilous as thou deemest; and thou shalt go about it whenso thou wilt, and the sooner the better, and we shall abide thee here as long as need may be.  And therewith he went his ways to tell Viridis and the others of this rede which they had come to between them.

p. 537CHAPTER II.  BIRDALONE TAKETH COUNSEL WITH HER WOOD-MOTHER CONCERNING THE MATTER OF SIR HUGH.

On that same day went Birdalone to the Oak of Tryst and called her wood-mother to her, and she came glad and smiling, and kissed and embraced Birdalone, and said unto her: Now I see that thou art well content with this last matter I have done for thee, whereas thou art come to crave a new gift of me.  How knowest thou that? said Birdalone, laughing.  Said Habundia:

Wouldst thou have come to me so soon otherwise from out of all that happiness?  I have come to tell thee of my rede, said Birdalone, and to ask thee if thou art like-minded with me thereon.  Said the wood-wife: And what is thy rede, my child?  Wood-mother, said Birdalone, we deem that it were good for us all to go down into Utterhay where I was born, and to take up our abode therein.

Said the wood-wife: This rede I praise, and even so would I have counselled you to do; but I abided to see if it should come from out of thy breast, and now even so it hath done; wherefore I understand thy wisdom and rejoice in thee.  And now crave thy boon, my child, and thou shalt have it without fail.

Yea, said Birdalone, that will I, and the more that it is a simple one and easy for thee to do.  Thou knowest that Hugh the Green Knight hath come with my she-friends seeking us all the way from under the Green Mountains, and he hath left there goods that he needs must have and folk whom he loves; and now he would go back thither, and fetch all that away hither, and see to his matters as soon as may be.  And I would have thee counsel us what to do, whether to build a barque, as perchance we may get it done, and sail the lake therein to the Castle of the Quest or thereabout, and thence to ride to his land; or else to take thy guidance and safe-conduct through the wood, and to bring his folk back the same way.

Said the wood-wife: As to the way by water, I may help you little therein, and meseemeth that way be many traps and wiles and many perils.  Wherefore I bid you try it not, but let the Green Knight come up hither to this tree to-morrow before noon, all horsed and armed and arrayed, and there shall he find three men armed in green gear, horsed well, and leading two sumpter-beasts with them; and they shall be his until he giveth them back unto me.  But if he doubteth any thing betwixt the wood’s end and under the Green Mountains, let him wage what folk he will besides, for these my men will have money enough of his with them.  But by no means let him send them away till he hath done with the wood altogether, both betwixt here and the western dwelt-land, and here and Utterhay, save thou be with him.  But while these be with him, both he and whatsoever money he bringeth shall be sure from all peril whiles they be in the wood.  Now, my child, was not this the boon thou camest up hither to ask of me?

Yea verily, said Birdalone; yet also I came up hither to praise thee and thank thee and love thee.  And she threw herself into Habundia’s arms and kissed and caressed her, and Habundia her in like wise.

Spake the wood-wife: Thou art the beloved child of my wisdom; and now I see of thee that thou wilt be faithful and true and loving unto me unto the end.  And I think I can see that thou and thy man shall do well and happily in Utterhay; and the Green Knight also and thy she-friends.  And whatsoever thou wilt of me that I may do for thee or thy friends, ask it freely, and freely shalt thou have it.  But this I will bid thee, that the while the Green Knight shall be gone about his matter, thou shalt come hither to me often; and thy friends also thou shalt bring to me, that I may see them and talk to them and love them.  And specially shalt thou bid Atra unto me; for meseems she is so wise already that I may learn her more wisdom, and put that into her heart which may solace her and make her to cease from fretting her own heart, and from grief and longing overmuch.  And I were fain to reward her in that she hath forborne to grudge against thee and to bear thee enmity.  For I know, my child, not from mine own heart, but from the wisdom I have learned, how hardly the children of Adam may bear to have that which they love taken away from them by another, even if they themselves might in the long last have wearied of it and cast it away their own selves.  Go now, my child, and do thy friend to wit what I will do for him.

Therewith they parted, and Birdalone fared home to the house, and found the fellowship of them all sitting by the brookside, and talking sweetly together in all joy and hope of what their life should be in the new land whereto Birdalone would lead them.  Straightway then she told them of Hugh and his journey, and how well he should be guarded in the wood both coming and going.  And they thought that right good, and they thanked her and praised her, and took her into their talk, and she sat down by them happily.

p. 541CHAPTER III.  OF THE JOURNEYING THROUGH THE FOREST OF EVILSHAW UNTO THE TOWN OF UTTERHAY.

On the morrow in due time Birdalone, going afoot, led Sir Hugh, all-armed and horsed, to the Oak of Tryst, and there they found the three men-at-arms, well-weaponed and in green weed, abiding them.  They did obeisance to Sir Hugh, and he greeted them, and then without more ado he kissed Birdalone and went his ways with his way-leaders, but Birdalone turned back to the house and her friends.

Next day Birdalone brought her three she-friends unto the Trysting Oak, and showed them to the wood-mother, and she was kind and soft with them; and both Aurea and Viridis were shy with her, and as if they feared her, but Atra was frank and free, and spake boldly.  And thereafter when Birdalone went to meet her wood-mother, Atra would go with her if she were asked, and at last would go alone, when she found that Habundia was fain of her coming, so that there were not many days when they met not; and the wood-wife fell to learning her the lore of the earth, as she had done aforetime with Birdalone; and Atra waxed ruddier and merrier of countenance, whereof was Birdalone right glad, and Arthur yet more glad, and the others well content.

So wore the time till Hugh had been gone for twenty and three days, and as they walked the meadows anigh the house about undern, they saw a knight riding down the bent toward them, and presently they knew him for Hugh, and turned and hastened to meet him, so that he was straightway amidst them, and on foot.  Dear then were the greetings and caresses betwixt them, and when it was over, and Birdalone had led away his horse and dight it for him, and had gotten him victuals and drink, and they were all sitting on the grass together, he told them how he had fared.  He had done all his matters in the Land under the Green Mountains, and had given over his lands and houses to a man of his lineage, his cousin, a good knight, and had taken from him of gold and goods what he would.  Then he had taken his two bairns and their nurse, and an old squire and five sergeants, whereof one was his foster-brother, and the others men somewhat stricken in years, and had departed with them.  Sithence he had come his ways to Greenford, and had held talk therein with the prior of a great and fair house of Black Canons, and had given him no little wealth wherewith to re-do the Castle of the Quest what was needed, and for livelihood of four canons to dwell there, and Leonard to be their prior, that there they might remember Sir Baudoin their dear friend daily in the office, and do good unto his soul.  Sithence he had ridden to the Castle of the Quest with the said Prior of St. Austin of Greenford, and had found Leonard, and had settled all the business how it was to be done.  Thereafter he had returned to Greenford, and gathered his folk, and got him gone, under the guidance of Habundia’s folk, by castles and thorps and towns the nearest way to the edge of Evilshaw.  And they had come to the forest, and ridden it six days without mishap; and when they had come to the Oak of Tryst once more, the way-leaders said that it were well if all they together tarried not much longer in the forest; wherefore they had brought