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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17973-h.zip b/17973-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d42df8 --- /dev/null +++ b/17973-h.zip diff --git a/17973-h/17973-h.htm b/17973-h/17973-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..525f31c --- /dev/null +++ b/17973-h/17973-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3461 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The World of Romance</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The World of Romance, by William Morris</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The World of Romance, by William Morris + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The World of Romance + being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856 + + +Author: William Morris + + + +Release Date: March 12, 2006 [eBook #17973] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD OF ROMANCE*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1906 J. Thomson edition by David Price, ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>THE WORLD OF ROMANCE</h1> +<p><i>BEING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE</i> OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE, +1856</p> +<p><i>By</i> WILLIAM MORRIS</p> +<p>LONDON: <i>Published by</i> J. THOMSON <i>at</i> 10,<br /> +CRAVEN GARDENS, WIMBLEDON, S. W.<br /> +MCMVI</p> +<p><!-- page i--><a name="pagei"></a><span class="pagenum">p. i</span><i>In +the tales . . . the world is one of pure romance. Mediæval +customs, mediæval buildings, the mediæval Catholic religion, +the general social framework of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, +are assumed throughout, but it would be idle to attempt to place them +in any known age or country. . . Their author in later years thought, +or seemed to think, lightly of them, calling them crude (as they are) +and very young (as they are). But they are nevertheless comparable +in quality to Keats’s ‘Endymion’ as rich in imagination, +as irregularly gorgeous in language, as full in every vein and fibre +of the sweet juices and ferment of the spring</i>.—<span class="smcap">J. +W. Mackail</span></p> +<p><!-- page ii--><a name="pageii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. ii</span>In +his last year at Oxford, Morris established, assuming the entire financial +responsibility, the ‘Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,’ written +almost entirely by himself and his college friends, but also numbering +Rossetti among its contributors. Like most college ventures, its +career was short, ending with its twelfth issue in December, 1856. +In this magazine Morris first found his strength as a writer, and though +his subsequent literary achievements made him indifferent to this earlier +work, its virility and wealth of romantic imagination justify its rescue +from oblivion.</p> +<p>The article on Amiens, intended originally as the first of a series, +is included in this volume as an illustration of Morris’s power +to clothe things actual with the glamour of Romance.</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>THE +STORY OF THE UNKNOWN CHURCH</h2> +<p>I was the master-mason of a church that was built more than six hundred +years ago; it is now two hundred years since that church vanished from +the face of the earth; it was destroyed utterly,—no fragment of +it was left; not even the great pillars that bore up the tower at the +cross, where the choir used to join the nave. No one knows now +even where it stood, only in this very autumn-tide, if you knew the +place, you would see the heaps made by the earth-covered ruins heaving +the yellow corn into glorious waves, so that the place where my church +used to be is as beautiful now as when it stood in all its splendour. +I do not remember very much about the land where my church was; I have +quite forgotten the name of it, but I know it was very beautiful, and +even now, while I am thinking of it, comes a flood of old memories, +and I almost seem to see it again,—that old beautiful land! only +dimly do I see it in spring and summer and winter, but I see it in autumn-tide +clearly now; yes, clearer, clearer, oh! so bright and glorious! yet +it was beautiful too in spring, when the brown earth began to grow green: +beautiful in summer, when the <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>blue +sky looked so much bluer, if you could hem a piece of it in between +the new white carving; beautiful in the solemn starry nights, so solemn +that it almost reached agony—the awe and joy one had in their +great beauty. But of all these beautiful times, I remember the +whole only of autumn-tide; the others come in bits to me; I can think +only of parts of them, but all of autumn; and of all days and nights +in autumn, I remember one more particularly. That autumn day the +church was nearly finished and the monks, for whom we were building +the church, and the people, who lived in the town hard by, crowded round +us oftentimes to watch us carving.</p> +<p>Now the great Church, and the buildings of the Abbey where the monks +lived, were about three miles from the town, and the town stood on a +hill overlooking the rich autumn country: it was girt about with great +walls that had overhanging battlements, and towers at certain places +all along the walls, and often we could see from the churchyard or the +Abbey garden, the flash of helmets and spears, and the dim shadowy waving +of banners, as the knights and lords and men-at-arms passed to and fro +along the battlements; and we could see too in the town the three spires +of the three churches; and <!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>the +spire of the Cathedral, which was the tallest of the three, was gilt +all over with gold, and always at night-time a great lamp shone from +it that hung in the spire midway between the roof of the church and +the cross at the top of the spire. The Abbey where we built the +Church was not girt by stone walls, but by a circle of poplar trees, +and whenever a wind passed over them, were it ever so little a breath, +it set them all a-ripple; and when the wind was high, they bowed and +swayed very low, and the wind, as it lifted the leaves, and showed their +silvery white sides, or as again in the lulls of it, it let them drop, +kept on changing the trees from green to white, and white to green; +moreover, through the boughs and trunks of the poplars, we caught glimpses +of the great golden corn sea, waving, waving, waving for leagues and +leagues; and among the corn grew burning scarlet poppies, and blue corn-flowers; +and the corn-flowers were so blue, that they gleamed, and seemed to +burn with a steady light, as they grew beside the poppies among the +gold of the wheat. Through the corn sea ran a blue river, and +always green meadows and lines of tall poplars followed its windings. +The old Church had been burned, and that was the reason why the monks +caused me to build the <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>new +one; the buildings of the Abbey were built at the same time as the burned-down +Church, more than a hundred years before I was born, and they were on +the north side of the Church, and joined to it by a cloister of round +arches, and in the midst of the cloister was a lawn, and in the midst +of that lawn, a fountain of marble, carved round about with flowers +and strange beasts, and at the edge of the lawn, near the round arches, +were a great many sun-flowers that were all in blossom on that autumn +day, and up many of the pillars of the cloister crept passion-flowers +and roses. Then farther from the Church, and past the cloister +and its buildings, were many detached buildings, and a great garden +round them, all within the circle of the poplar trees; in the garden +were trellises covered over with roses, and convolvolus, and the great-leaved +fiery nasturium; and specially all along by the poplar trees were there +trellises, but on these grew nothing but deep crimson roses; the hollyhocks +too were all out in blossom at that time, great spires of pink, and +orange, and red, and white, with their soft, downy leaves. I said +that nothing grew on the trellises by the poplars but crimson roses, +but I was not quite right, for in many places the wild flowers had crept +into the garden from without; lush green briony, with green-white blossoms, +that grows <!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>so +fast, one could almost think that we see it grow, and deadly nightshade, +La bella donna, O! so beautiful; red berry, and purple, yellow-spiked +flower, and deadly, cruel-looking, dark green leaf, all growing together +in the glorious days of early autumn. And in the midst of the +great garden was a conduit, with its sides carved with histories from +the Bible, and there was on it too, as on the fountain in the cloister, +much carving of flowers and strange beasts. Now the Church itself +was surrounded on every side but the north by the cemetery, and there +were many graves there, both of monks and of laymen, and often the friends +of those, whose bodies lay there, had planted flowers about the graves +of those they loved. I remember one such particularly, for at +the head of it was a cross of carved wood, and at the foot of it, facing +the cross, three tall sun-flowers; then in the midst of the cemetery +was a cross of stone, carved on one side with the Crucifixion of our +Lord Jesus Christ, and on the other with our Lady holding the Divine +Child. So that day, that I specially remember, in autumn-tide, +when the Church was nearly finished, I was carving in the central porch +of the west front; (for I carved all those bas-reliefs in the west front +with my own hand;) beneath me my sister Margaret was carving at <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>the +flower-work, and the little quatrefoils that carry the signs of the +zodiac and emblems of the months: now my sister Margaret was rather +more than twenty years old at that time, and she was very beautiful, +with dark brown hair and deep calm violet eyes. I had lived with +her all my life, lived with her almost alone latterly, for our father +and mother died when she was quite young, and I loved her very much, +though I was not thinking of her just then, as she stood beneath me +carving. Now the central porch was carved with a bas-relief of +the Last Judgment, and it was divided into three parts by horizontal +bands of deep flower-work. In the lowest division, just over the +doors, was carved The Rising of the Dead; above were angels blowing +long trumpets, and Michael the Archangel weighing the souls, and the +blessed led into heaven by angels, and the lost into hell by the devil; +and in the topmost division was the Judge of the world.</p> +<p>All the figures in the porch were finished except one, and I remember +when I woke that morning my exultation at the thought of my Church being +so nearly finished; I remember, too, how a kind of misgiving mingled +with the exultation, which, try all I could, I was unable to shake off; +I thought then it was a rebuke for <!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>my +pride, well, perhaps it was. The figure I had to carve was Abraham, +sitting with a blossoming tree on each side of him, holding in his two +hands the corners of his great robe, so that it made a mighty fold, +wherein, with their hands crossed over their breasts, were the souls +of the faithful, of whom he was called Father: I stood on the scaffolding +for some time, while Margaret’s chisel worked on bravely down +below. I took mine in my hand, and stood so, listening to the +noise of the masons inside, and two monks of the Abbey came and stood +below me, and a knight, holding his little daughter by the hand, who +every now and then looked up at him, and asked him strange questions. +I did not think of these long, but began to think of Abraham, yet I +could not think of him sitting there, quiet and solemn, while the Judgment-Trumpet +was being blown; I rather thought of him as he looked when he chased +those kings so far; riding far ahead of any of his company, with his +mail-hood off his head, and lying in grim folds down his back, with +the strong west wind blowing his wild black hair far out behind him, +with the wind rippling the long scarlet pennon of his lance; riding +there amid the rocks and the sands alone; with the last gleam of the +armour of the beaten kings disappearing behind <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>the +winding of the pass; with his company a long, long way behind, quite +out of sight, though their trumpets sounded faintly among the clefts +of the rocks; and so I thought I saw him, till in his fierce chase he +lept, horse and man, into a deep river, quiet, swift, and smooth; and +there was something in the moving of the water-lilies as the breast +of the horse swept them aside, that suddenly took away the thought of +Abraham and brought a strange dream of lands I had never seen; and the +first was of a place where I was quite alone, standing by the side of +a river, and there was the sound of singing a very long way off, but +no living thing of any kind could be seen, and the land was quite flat, +quite without hills, and quite without trees too, and the river wound +very much, making all kinds of quaint curves, and on the side where +I stood there grew nothing but long grass, but on the other side grew, +quite on to the horizon, a great sea of red corn-poppies, only paths +of white lilies wound all among them, with here and there a great golden +sun-flower. So I looked down at the river by my feet, and saw +how blue it was, and how, as the stream went swiftly by, it swayed to +and fro the long green weeds, and I stood and looked at the river for +long, till at last I felt some one touch me on <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>the +shoulder, and, looking round, I saw standing by me my friend Amyot, +whom I love better than any one else in the world, but I thought in +my dream that I was frightened when I saw him, for his face had changed +so, it was so bright and almost transparent, and his eyes gleamed and +shone as I had never seen them do before. Oh! he was so wondrously +beautiful, so fearfully beautiful! and as I looked at him the distant +music swelled, and seemed to come close up to me, and then swept by +us, and fainted away, at last died off entirely; and then I felt sick +at heart, and faint, and parched, and I stooped to drink of the water +of the river, and as soon as the water touched my lips, lo! the river +vanished, and the flat country with its poppies and lilies, and I dreamed +that I was in a boat by myself again, floating in an almost land-locked +bay of the northern sea, under a cliff of dark basalt. I was lying +on my back in the boat, looking up at the intensely blue sky, and a +long low swell from the outer sea lifted the boat up and let it fall +again and carried it gradually nearer and nearer towards the dark cliff; +and as I moved on, I saw at last, on the top of the cliff, a castle, +with many towers, and on the highest tower of the castle there was a +great white banner floating, with a red chevron <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>on +it, and three golden stars on the chevron; presently I saw too on one +of the towers, growing in a cranny of the worn stones, a great bunch +of golden and blood-red wall-flowers, and I watched the wall-flowers +and banner for long; when suddenly I heard a trumpet blow from the castle, +and saw a rush of armed men on to the battlements, and there was a fierce +fight, till at last it was ended, and one went to the banner and pulled +it down, and cast it over the cliff in to the sea, and it came down +in long sweeps, with the wind making little ripples in it;—slowly, +slowly it came, till at last it fell over me and covered me from my +feet till over my breast, and I let it stay there and looked again at +the castle, and then I saw that there was an amber-coloured banner floating +over the castle in place of the red chevron, and it was much larger +than the other: also now, a man stood on the battlements, looking towards +me; he had a tilting helmet on, with the visor down, and an amber-coloured +surcoat over his armour: his right hand was ungauntletted, and he held +it high above his head, and in his hand was the bunch of wallflowers +that I had seen growing on the wall; and his hand was white and small +like a woman’s, for in my dream I could see even very far-off +things much clearer than we see real material <!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>things +on the earth: presently he threw the wallflowers over the cliff, and +they fell in the boat just behind my head, and then I saw, looking down +from the battlements of the castle, Amyot. He looked down towards +me very sorrowfully, I thought, but, even as in the other dream, said +nothing; so I thought in my dream that I wept for very pity, and for +love of him, for he looked as a man just risen from a long illness, +and who will carry till he dies a dull pain about with him. He +was very thin, and his long black hair drooped all about his face, as +he leaned over the battlements looking at me: he was quite pale, and +his cheeks were hollow, but his eyes large, and soft, and sad. +So I reached out my arms to him, and suddenly I was walking with him +in a lovely garden, and we said nothing, for the music which I had heard +at first was sounding close to us now, and there were many birds in +the boughs of the trees: oh, such birds! gold and ruby, and emerald, +but they sung not at all, but were quite silent, as though they too +were listening to the music. Now all this time Amyot and I had +been looking at each other, but just then I turned my head away from +him, and as soon as I did so, the music ended with a long wail, and +when I turned again Amyot was gone; then I felt even more sad and sick +at heart <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>than +I had before when I was by the river, and I leaned against a tree, and +put my hands before my eyes. When I looked again the garden was +gone, and I knew not where I was, and presently all my dreams were gone. +The chips were flying bravely from the stone under my chisel at last, +and all my thoughts now were in my carving, when I heard my name, “Walter,” +called, and when I looked down I saw one standing below me, whom I had +seen in my dreams just before—Amyot. I had no hopes of seeing +him for a long time, perhaps I might never see him again, I thought, +for he was away (as I thought) fighting in the holy wars, and it made +me almost beside myself to see him standing close by me in the flesh. +I got down from my scaffolding as soon as I could, and all thoughts +else were soon drowned in the joy of having him by me; Margaret, too, +how glad she must have been, for she had been betrothed to him for some +time before he went to the wars, and he had been five years away; five +years! and how we had thought of him through those many weary days! +how often his face had come before me! his brave, honest face, the most +beautiful among all the faces of men and women I have ever seen. +Yes, I remember how five years ago I held his hand as we came together +out of the <!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>cathedral +of that great, far-off city, whose name I forget now; and then I remember +the stamping of the horses’ feet; I remember how his hand left +mine at last, and then, some one looking back at me earnestly as they +all rode on together—looking back, with his hand on the saddle +behind him, while the trumpets sang in long solemn peals as they all +rode on together, with the glimmer of arms and the fluttering of banners, +and the clinking of the rings of the mail, that sounded like the falling +of many drops of water into the deep, still waters of some pool that +the rocks nearly meet over; and the gleam and flash of the swords, and +the glimmer of the lance-heads and the flutter of the rippled banners +that streamed out from them, swept past me, and were gone, and they +seemed like a pageant in a dream, whose meaning we know not; and those +sounds too, the trumpets, and the clink of the mail, and the thunder +of the horse-hoofs, they seemed dream-like too—and it was all +like a dream that he should leave me, for we had said that we should +always be together; but he went away, and now he is come back again.</p> +<p>We were by his bed-side, Margaret and I; I stood and leaned over +him, and my hair fell sideways over my face and touched his face; Margaret +kneeled beside me, quivering in every <!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>limb, +not with pain, I think, but rather shaken by a passion of earnest prayer. +After some time (I know not how long), I looked up from his face to +the window underneath which he lay; I do not know what time of the day +it was, but I know that it was a glorious autumn day, a day soft with +melting, golden haze: a vine and a rose grew together, and trailed half +across the window, so that I could not see much of the beautiful blue +sky, and nothing of town or country beyond; the vine leaves were touched +with red here and there, and three over-blown roses, light pink roses, +hung amongst them. I remember dwelling on the strange lines the +autumn had made in red on one of the gold-green vine leaves, and watching +one leaf of one of the over-blown roses, expecting it to fall every +minute; but as I gazed, and felt disappointed that the rose leaf had +not fallen yet, I felt my pain suddenly shoot through me, and I remembered +what I had lost; and then came bitter, bitter dreams,—dreams which +had once made me happy,—dreams of the things I had hoped would +be, of the things that would never be now; they came between the fair +vine leaves and rose blossoms, and that which lay before the window; +they came as before, perfect in colour and form, sweet sounds and shapes. +But <!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>now +in every one was something unutterably miserable; they would not go +away, they put out the steady glow of the golden haze, the sweet light +of the sun through the vine leaves, the soft leaning of the full blown +roses. I wandered in them for a long time; at last I felt a hand +put me aside gently, for I was standing at the head of—of the +bed; then some one kissed my forehead, and words were spoken—I +know not what words. The bitter dreams left me for the bitterer +reality at last; for I had found him that morning lying dead, only the +morning after I had seen him when he had come back from his long absence—I +had found him lying dead, with his hands crossed downwards, with his +eyes closed, as though the angels had done that for him; and now when +I looked at him he still lay there, and Margaret knelt by him with her +face touching his: she was not quivering now, her lips moved not at +all as they had done just before; and so, suddenly those words came +to my mind which she had spoken when she kissed me, and which at the +time I had only heard with my outward hearing, for she had said, “Walter, +farewell, and Christ keep you; but for me, I must be with him, for so +I promised him last night that I would never leave him any more, and +God will let me go.” <!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>And +verily Margaret and Amyot did go, and left me very lonely and sad.</p> +<p>It was just beneath the westernmost arch of the nave, there I carved +their tomb: I was a long time carving it; I did not think I should be +so long at first, and I said, “I shall die when I have finished +carving it,” thinking that would be a very short time. But +so it happened after I had carved those two whom I loved, lying with +clasped hands like husband and wife above their tomb, that I could not +yet leave carving it; and so that I might be near them I became a monk, +and used to sit in the choir and sing, thinking of the time when we +should all be together again. And as I had time I used to go to +the westernmost arch of the nave and work at the tomb that was there +under the great, sweeping arch; and in process of time I raised a marble +canopy that reached quite up to the top of the arch, and I painted it +too as fair as I could, and carved it all about with many flowers and +histories, and in them I carved the faces of those I had known on earth +(for I was not as one on earth now, but seemed quite away out of the +world). And as I carved, sometimes the monks and other people +too would come and gaze, and watch how the flowers grew; and sometimes +too as they gazed, they would weep <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>for +pity, knowing how all had been. So my life passed, and I lived +in that Abbey for twenty years after he died, till one morning, quite +early, when they came into the church for matins, they found me lying +dead, with my chisel in my hand, underneath the last lily of the tomb.</p> +<h2><!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>LINDENBORG +POOL. <a name="citation21"></a><a href="#footnote21">{21}</a></h2> +<p>I read once in lazy humour Thorpe’s <i>Northern Mythology</i> +on a cold May night when the north wind was blowing; in lazy humour, +but when I came to the tale that is here amplified there was something +in it that fixed my attention and made me think of it; and whether I +would or no, my thoughts ran in this way, as here follows.</p> +<p>So I felt obliged to write, and wrote accordingly, and by the time +I had done the grey light filled all my room; so I put out my candles, +and went to bed, not without fear and trembling, for the morning twilight +is so strange and lonely. This is what I wrote.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>Yes, on that dark night, with that wild unsteady north wind howling, +though it was May time, it was doubtless dismal enough in the forest, +where the boughs clashed eerily, and where, as the wanderer in that +place hurried along, strange forms half showed themselves to him, the +more fearful because half seen in that way: dismal enough doubtless +on wide moors where the great wind had it all its own way: <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>dismal +on the rivers creeping on and on between the marsh-lands, creeping through +the willows, the water trickling through the locks, sounding faintly +in the gusts of the wind.</p> +<p>Yet surely nowhere so dismal as by the side of that still pool.</p> +<p>I threw myself down on the ground there, utterly exhausted with my +struggle against the wind, and with bearing the fathoms and fathoms +of the heavily-leaded plumb-line that lay beside me.</p> +<p>Fierce as the rain was, it could not raise the leaden waters of that +fearful pool, defended as they were by the steep banks of dripping yellow +clay, striped horribly here and there with ghastly uncertain green and +blue.</p> +<p>They said no man could fathom it; and yet all round the edges of +it grew a rank crop of dreary reeds and segs, some round, some flat, +but none ever flowering as other things flowered, never dying and being +renewed, but always the same stiff array of unbroken reeds and segs, +some round, some flat. Hard by me were two trees leafless and +ugly, made, it seemed, only for the wind to go through with a wild sough +on such nights as these; and for a mile from that place were no other +trees.</p> +<p>True, I could not see all this at that time, <!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>then, +in the dark night, but I knew well that it was all there; for much had +I studied this pool in the day-time, trying to learn the secret of it; +many hours I had spent there, happy with a kind of happiness, because +forgetful of the past. And even now, could I not hear the wind +going through those trees, as it never went through any trees before +or since? could I not see gleams of the dismal moor? could I not hear +those reeds just taken by the wind, knocking against each other, the +flat ones scraping all along the round ones? Could I not hear, +moreover, the slow trickling of the land-springs through the clay banks?</p> +<p>The cold, chill horror of the place was too much for me; I had never +been there by night before, nobody had for quite a long time, and now +to come on such a night! If there had been any moon, the place +would have looked more as it did by day; besides, the moon shining on +water is always so beautiful, on any water even: if it had been starlight, +one could have looked at the stars and thought of the time when those +fields were fertile and beautiful (for such a time was, I am sure), +when the cowslips grew among the grass, and when there was promise of +yellow-waving corn stained with poppies; that time which the stars had +seen, but <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>which +we had never seen, which even they would never see again—past +time!</p> +<p>Ah! what was that which touched my shoulder?—Yes, I see, only +a dead leaf.—Yes, to be here on this eighth of May too of all +nights in the year, the night of that awful day when ten years ago I +slew him, not undeservedly, God knows, yet how dreadful it was!—Another +leaf! and another!—Strange, those trees have been dead this hundred +years, I should think. How sharp the wind is too, just as if I +were moving along and meeting it;—why, I <i>am</i> moving! what +then, I am not there after all; where am I then? there are the trees; +no, they are freshly-planted oak saplings, the very ones that those +withered last-year’s leaves were blown on me from.</p> +<p>I have been dreaming then, and am on my road to the lake: but what +a young wood! I must have lost my way; I never saw all this before. +Well—I will walk on stoutly.</p> +<p>May the Lord help my senses! I am <i>riding</i>!—on a +mule; a bell tinkles somewhere on him; the wind blows something about +with a flapping sound: something? in heaven’s name, what? +<i>My</i> long black robes.—Why—when I left my house I was +clad in serviceable broadcloth of the nineteenth century.</p> +<p><!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>I +shall go mad—I am mad—I am gone to the devil—I have +lost my identity; who knows in what place, in what age of the world +I am living now? Yet I will be calm; I have seen all these things +before, in pictures surely, or something like them. I am resigned, +since it is no worse than that. I am a priest then, in the dim, +far-off thirteenth century, riding, about midnight I should say, to +carry the blessed Sacrament to some dying man.</p> +<p>Soon I found that I was not alone; a man was riding close to me on +a horse; he was fantastically dressed, more so than usual for that time, +being striped all over in vertical stripes of yellow and green, with +quaint birds like exaggerated storks in different attitudes counter-changed +on the stripes; all this I saw by the lantern he carried, in the light +of which his debauched black eyes quite flashed. On he went, unsteadily +rolling, very drunk, though it was the thirteenth century, but being +plainly used to that, he sat his horse fairly well.</p> +<p>I watched him in my proper nineteenth-century character, with insatiable +curiosity and intense amusement; but as a quiet priest of a long-past +age, with contempt and disgust enough, not unmixed with fear and anxiety.</p> +<p>He roared out snatches of doggrel verse as <!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>he +went along, drinking songs, hunting songs, robbing songs, lust songs, +in a voice that sounded far and far above the roaring of the wind, though +that was high, and rolled along the dark road that his lantern cast +spikes of light along ever so far, making the devils grin: and meanwhile +I, the priest, glanced from him wrathfully every now and then to That +which I carried very reverently in my hand, and my blood curdled with +shame and indignation; but being a shrewd priest, I knew well enough +that a sermon would be utterly thrown away on a man who was drunk every +day in the year, and, more especially, very drunk then. So I held +my peace, saying only under my breath:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Dixit incipiens in corde suo, Non est Deus. +Corrupti sunt et abominables facti sunt in studiis suis; non est qui +faciat bonum, non est usque ad unum: sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum; +linguis suis dolose agebunt, venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. +Dominum non invocaverunt; illic trepid-averunt timore, ubi non erat +timor. Quis dabit ex Sion salutare Israel?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and so I went on, thinking too at times about the man who was dying +and whom I was soon to see: he had been a bold bad plundering <!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>baron, +but was said lately to have altered his way of life, having seen a miracle +or some such thing; he had departed to keep a tournament near his castle +lately, but had been brought back sore wounded, so this drunken servant, +with some difficulty and much unseasonable merriment, had made me understand, +and now lay at the point of death, brought about by unskilful tending +and such like. Then I thought of his face—a bad face, very +bad, retreating forehead, small twinkling eyes, projecting lower jaw; +and such a voice, too, he had! like the grunt of a bear mostly.</p> +<p>Now don’t you think it strange that this face should be the +same, actually the same as the face of my enemy, slain that very day +ten years ago? I did not hate him, either that man or the baron, +but I wanted to see as little of him as possible, and I hoped that the +ceremony would soon be over, and that I should be at liberty again.</p> +<p>And so with these thoughts and many others, but all thought strangely +double, we went along, the varlet being too drunk to take much notice +of me, only once, as he was singing some doggrel, like this, I think, +making allowances for change of language and so forth:</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>The +Duke went to Treves<br /> + On the first of November;<br /> +His wife stay’d at Bonn—<br /> + Let me see, I remember;</p> +<p>When the Duke came back<br /> + To look for his wife,<br /> +We came from Cologne,<br /> + And took the Duke’s life;</p> +<p>We hung him mid high<br /> + Between spire and pavement,<br /> +From their mouths dropp’d the cabbage<br /> + Of the carles in amazement.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Boo—hoo! Church rat! Church mouse! +Hilloa, Priest! have you brought the pyx, eh?”</p> +<p>From some cause or other he seemed to think this an excellent joke, +for he almost shrieked with laughter as we went along; but by this time +we had reached the castle. Challenge, and counter-challenge, and +we passed the outermost gate and began to go through some of the courts, +in which stood lime trees here and there, growing green tenderly with +that Maytime, though the north wind bit so keenly.</p> +<p>How strange again! as I went farther, there seemed no doubt of it; +here in the aftertime came that pool, how I knew not; but in the few +moments that we were riding from the outer <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>gate +to the castle-porch I thought so intensely over the probable cause for +the existence of that pool, that (how strange!) I could almost have +thought I was back again listening to the oozing of the land-springs +through the high clay banks there. I was wakened from that before +it grew too strong, by the glare of many torches, and, dismounting, +found myself in the midst of some twenty attendants, with flushed faces +and wildly sparkling eyes, which they were vainly trying to soften to +due solemnity; mock solemnity I had almost said, for they did not seem +to think it necessary to appear really solemn, and had difficulty enough +apparently in not prolonging indefinitely the shout of laughter with +which they had at first greeted me. “Take the holy Father +to my Lord,” said one at last, “and we will go with him.”</p> +<p>So they led me up the stairs into the gorgeously-furnished chamber; +the light from the heavy waxen candles was pleasant to my eyes after +the glare and twisted red smoke of the pine-torches; but all the essences +scattered about the chamber were not enough to conquer the fiery breath +of those about me.</p> +<p>I put on the alb and stole they brought me, and, before I went up +to the sick man, looked round on those that were in the rooms; for the +<!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>rooms +opened one into the other by many doors, across some of which hung gorgeous +tapestry; all the rooms seemed to have many people, for some stood at +these doors, and some passed to and fro, swinging aside the heavy hangings; +once several people at once, seemingly quite by accident, drew aside +almost all the veils from the doors, and showed an endless perspective +of gorgeousness.</p> +<p>And at these things my heart fainted for horror. “Had +not the Jews of late,” thought I, the priest, “been very +much in the habit of crucifying children in mockery of the Holiest, +holding gorgeous feasts while they beheld the poor innocents die? +These men are Atheists, you are in a trap, yet quit yourself like a +man.”</p> +<p>“Ah, sharp one,” thought I, the author, “where +are you at last? try to pray as a test.—Well, well, these things +are strangely like devils.—O man, you have talked about bravery +often, now is your time to practise it: once for all trust in God, or +I fear you are lost.”</p> +<p>Moreover it increased my horror that there was no appearance of a +woman in all these rooms; and yet was there not? there, those things—I +looked more intently; yes, no doubt they were women, but all dressed +like men;—what a ghastly place!</p> +<p><!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>“O +man! do your duty,” my angel said; then in spite of the bloodshot +eyes of man and woman there, in spite of their bold looks, they quailed +before me.</p> +<p>I stepped up to the bed-side, where under the velvet coverlid lay +the dying man, his small sparkling eyes only (but dulled now by coming +death) showing above the swathings. I was about to kneel down +by the bed-side to confess him, when one of those—things—called +out (now they had just been whispering and sniggering together, but +the priest in his righteous, brave scorn would not look at them; the +humbled author, half fearful, half trustful, dared not) so one called +out:</p> +<p>“Sir Priest, for three days our master has spoken no articulate +word; you must pass over all particulars; ask for a sign only.”</p> +<p>Such a strange ghastly suspicion flashed across me just then; but +I choked it, and asked the dying man if he repented of his sins, and +if he believed all that was necessary to salvation, and, if so, to make +a sign, if he were able: the man moved a little and groaned; so I took +it for a sign, as he was clearly incapable either of speaking or moving, +and accordingly began the service for the administration of the sacraments; +and as I began, those behind me and through <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>all +the rooms (I know it was through all of them) began to move about, in +a bewildering dance-like motion, mazy and intricate; yes, and presently +music struck up through all those rooms, music and singing, lively and +gay; many of the tunes I had heard before (in the nineteenth century) +I could have sworn to half a dozen of the polkas.</p> +<p>The rooms grew fuller and fuller of people; they passed thick and +fast between the rooms, and the hangings were continually rustling; +one fat old man with a big belly crept under the bed where I was, and +wheezed and chuckled there, laughing and talking to one who stooped +down and lifted up the hangings to look at him.</p> +<p>Still more and more people talking and singing and laughing and twirling +about, till my brain went round and round, and I scarce knew what I +did; yet, somehow, I could not leave off; I dared not even look over +my shoulder, fearing lest I should see something so horrible as to make +me die.</p> +<p>So I got on with the service, and at last took the pyx, and took +thereout the sacred wafer, whereupon was a deep silence through all +those rooms, which troubled me, I think, more than all which had gone +before, for I knew well it did not mean reverence.</p> +<p><!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>I +held It up, that which I counted so holy, when lo! great laughter, echoing +like thunder-claps through all the rooms, not dulled by the veiling +hangings, for they were all raised up together, and, with a slow upheaval +of the rich clothes among which he lay, with a sound that was half snarl, +half grunt, with a helpless body swathed in bedclothes, a huge <i>swine</i> +that I had been shriving tore from me the Holy Thing, deeply scoring +my hand as he did so with tusk and tooth, so that the red blood ran +quick on to the floor.</p> +<p>Therewithall he rolled down on to the floor, and lay there helplessly, +only able to roll to and fro, because of the swathings.</p> +<p>Then right madly skirled the intolerable laughter, rising to shrieks +that were fearfuller than any scream of agony I ever heard; the hundreds +of people through all those grand rooms danced and wheeled about me, +shrieking, hemming me in with interlaced arms, the women loosing their +long hair and thrusting forward their horribly-grinning unsexed faces +toward me till I felt their hot breath.</p> +<p>Oh! how I hated them all! almost hated all mankind for their sakes; +how I longed to get right quit of all men; among whom, as it seemed, +all sacredest things even were made a <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>mock +of. I looked about me fiercely, I sprang forward, and clutched +a sword from the gilded belt of one of those who stood near me; with +savage blows that threw the blood about the gilded walls and their hangings +right over the heads of those—things—I cleared myself from +them, and tore down the great stairs madly, yet could not, as in a dream, +go fast enough, because of my passion.</p> +<p>I was out in the courtyard, among the lime trees soon, the north +wind blowing freshly on my heated forehead in that dawn. The outer +gate was locked and bolted; I stooped and raised a great stone and sent +it at the lock with all my strength, and I was stronger than ten men +then; iron and oak gave way before it, and through the ragged splinters +I tore in reckless fury, like a wild horse through a hazel hedge.</p> +<p>And no one had pursued me. I knelt down on the dear green turf +outside, and thanked God with streaming eyes for my deliverance, praying +him forgiveness for my unwilling share in that night’s mockery.</p> +<p>Then I arose and turned to go, but even as I did so I heard a roar +as if the world were coming in two, and looking toward the castle, saw, +not a castle, but a great cloud of white lime-dust swaying this way +and that in the gusts of the wind.</p> +<p><!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>Then +while the east grew bright there arose a hissing, gurgling noise, that +swelled into the roar and wash of many waters, and by then the sun had +risen a deep black lake lay before my feet.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>And this is how I tried to fathom the Lindenborg Pool.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span><i>No +memory labours longer, from the deep</i><br /> + <i>Gold mines of thought to lift the hidden ore</i><br /> +<i>That glimpses, moving up, than I from sleep</i><br /> + <i>To gather and tell o’er</i><br /> + <i>Each little sound and sight</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>A +DREAM.</h2> +<p>I dreamed once, that four men sat by the winter fire talking and +telling tales, in a house that the wind howled round.</p> +<p>And one of them, the eldest, said: “When I was a boy, before +you came to this land, that bar of red sand rock, which makes a fall +in our river, had only just been formed; for it used to stand above +the river in a great cliff, tunnelled by a cave about midway between +the green-growing grass and the green-flowing river; and it fell one +night, when you had not yet come to this land, no, nor your fathers.</p> +<p>“Now, concerning this cliff, or pike rather (for it was a tall +slip of rock and not part of a range), many strange tales were told; +and my father used to say, that in his time many would have explored +that cave, either from covetousness (expecting to find gold therein +), or from that love of wonders which most young men have, but fear +kept them back. Within the memory of man, however, some had entered, +and, so men said, were never seen on earth again; but my father said +that the tales told concerning such, very far from deterring him (then +quite a youth) from the quest of this <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>cavern, +made him all the more earnestly long to go; so that one day in his fear, +my grandfather, to prevent him, stabbed him in the shoulder, so that +he was obliged to keep his bed for long; and somehow he never went, +and died at last without ever having seen the inside of the cavern.</p> +<p>“My father told me many wondrous tales about the place, whereof +for a long time I have been able to remember nothing; yet, by some means +or another, a certain story has grown up in my heart, which I will tell +you something of; a story which no living creature ever told me, though +I do not remember the time when I knew it not. Yes, I will tell +you some of it, not all perhaps, but as much as I am allowed to tell.”</p> +<p>The man stopped and pondered awhile, leaning over the fire where +the flames slept under the caked coal: he was an old man, and his hair +was quite white. He spoke again presently. “And I +have fancied sometimes, that in some way, how I know not, I am mixed +up with the strange story I am going to tell you.” Again +he ceased, and gazed at the fire, bending his head down till his beard +touched his knees; then, rousing himself, said in a changed voice (for +he had been speaking <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>dreamily +hitherto): “That strange-looking old house that you all know, +with the limes and yew-trees before it, and the double line of very +old yew-trees leading up from the gateway-tower to the porch—you +know how no one will live there now because it is so eerie, and how +even that bold bad lord that would come there, with his turbulent followers, +was driven out in shame and disgrace by invisible agency. Well, +in times past there dwelt in that house an old grey man, who was lord +of that estate, his only daughter, and a young man, a kind of distant +cousin of the house, whom the lord had brought up from a boy, as he +was the orphan of a kinsman who had fallen in combat in his quarrel. +Now, as the young knight and the young lady were both beautiful and +brave, and loved beauty and good things ardently, it was natural enough +that they should discover as they grew up that they were in love with +one another; and afterwards, as they went on loving one another, it +was, alas! not unnatural that they should sometimes have half-quarrels, +very few and far between indeed, and slight to lookers-on, even while +they lasted, but nevertheless intensely bitter and unhappy to the principal +parties thereto. I suppose their love then, whatever it has grown +to since, was not so all-absorbing <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>as +to merge all differences of opinion and feeling, for again there were +such differences then. So, upon a time it happened, just when +a great war had arisen, and Lawrence (for that was the knight’s +name) was sitting, and thinking of war, and his departure from home; +sitting there in a very grave, almost a stern mood, that Ella, his betrothed, +came in, gay and sprightly, in a humour that Lawrence often enough could +little understand, and this time liked less than ever, yet the bare +sight of her made him yearn for her full heart, which he was not to +have yet; so he caught her by the hand, and tried to draw her down to +him, but she let her hand lie loose in his, and did not answer the pressure +in which his heart flowed to hers; then he arose and stood before her, +face to face, but she drew back a little, yet he kissed her on the mouth +and said, though a rising in his throat almost choked his voice, ‘Ella, +are you sorry I am going?’ ‘Yea,’ she said, +‘and nay, for you will shout my name among the sword flashes, +and you will fight for me.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, +‘for love and duty, dearest.’ ‘For duty? ah! +I think, Lawrence, if it were not for me, you would stay at home and +watch the clouds, or sit under the linden trees singing dismal love +ditties of your own making, dear knight: truly, if you turn out a great +warrior, <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>I +too shall live in fame, for I am certainly the making of your desire +to fight.’ He let drop his hands from her shoulders, where +he had laid them, and said, with a faint flush over his face, ‘You +wrong me, Ella, for, though I have never wished to fight for the mere +love of fighting, and though,’ (and here again he flushed a little) +‘and though I am not, I well know, so free of the fear of death +as a good man would be, yet for this duty’s sake, which is really +a higher love, Ella, love of God, I trust I would risk life, nay honour, +even if not willingly, yet cheerfully at least.’ ‘Still +duty, duty,’ she said; ‘you lay, Lawrence, as many people +do, most stress on the point where you are weakest; moreover, those +knights who in time past have done wild, mad things merely at their +ladies’ word, scarcely did so for duty; for they owed their lives +to their country surely, to the cause of good, and should not have risked +them for a whim, and yet you praised them the other day.’ +‘Did I?’ said Lawrence; ‘well, in a way they were +much to be praised, for even blind love and obedience is well; but reasonable +love, reasonable obedience is so far better as to be almost a different +thing; yet, I think, if the knights did well partly, the ladies did +altogether ill: for if they had faith in their lovers, and did this +merely <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>from +a mad longing to see them do ‘noble’ deeds, then they had +but little faith in God, Who can, and at His good pleasure does give +time and opportunity to every man, if he will but watch for it, to serve +Him with reasonable service, and gain love and all noble things in greater +measure thereby: but if these ladies did as they did, that they might +prove their knights, then surely did they lack faith both in God and +man. I do not think that two friends even could live together +on such terms, but for lovers,—ah! Ella, Ella, why do you look +so at me? on this day, almost the last, we shall be together for long; +Ella, your face is changed, your eyes—O Christ! help her and me, +help her, good Lord.’ ‘Lawrence,’ she said, +speaking quickly and in jerks, ‘dare you, for my sake, sleep this +night in the cavern of the red pike? for I say to you that, faithful +or not, I doubt your courage.’ But she was startled when +she saw him, and how the fiery blood rushed up to his forehead, then +sank to his heart again, and his face became as pale as the face of +a dead man; he looked at her and said, ‘Yes, Ella, I will go now; +for what matter where I go?’ He turned and moved toward +the door; he was almost gone, when that evil spirit left her, and she +cried out aloud, passionately, eagerly: ‘Lawrence, <!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>Lawrence, +come back once more, if only to strike me dead with your knightly sword.’ +He hesitated, wavered, turned, and in another moment she was lying in +his arms weeping into his hair.</p> +<p>“‘And yet, Ella, the spoken word, the thought of our +hearts cannot be recalled, I must go, and go this night too, only promise +one thing.’ ‘Dearest, what? you are always right!’ +‘Love, you must promise that if I come not again by to-morrow +at moonrise, you will go to the red pike, and, having entered the cavern, +go where God leads you, and seek me, and never leave that quest, even +if it end not but with death.’ ‘Lawrence, how your +heart beats! poor heart! are you afraid that I shall hesitate to promise +to perform that which is the only thing I could do? I know I am +not worthy to be with you, yet I must be with you in body or soul, or +body and soul will die.’ They sat silent, and the birds +sang in the garden of lilies beyond; then said Ella again: ‘Moreover, +let us pray God to give us longer life, so that if our natural lives +are short for the accomplishment of this quest, we may have more, yea, +even many more lives.’ ‘He will, my Ella,’ said +Lawrence, ‘and I think, nay, am sure that our wish will be granted; +and I, too, <!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>will +add a prayer, but will ask it very humbly, namely, that he will give +me another chance or more to fight in His cause, another life to live +instead of this failure.’ ‘Let us pray too that we +may meet, however long the time be before our meeting,’ she said; +so they knelt down and prayed, hand fast locked in hand meantime; and +afterwards they sat in that chamber facing the east, hard by the garden +of lilies; and the sun fell from his noontide light gradually, lengthening +the shadows, and when he sank below the sky-line all the sky was faint, +tender, crimson on a ground of blue; the crimson faded too, and the +moon began to rise, but when her golden rim first showed over the wooded +hills, Lawrence arose; they kissed one long trembling kiss, and then +he went and armed himself; and their lips did not meet again after that, +for such a long, long time, so many weary years; for he had said: ‘Ella, +watch me from the porch, but touch me not again at this time; only, +when the moon shows level with the lily-heads, go into the porch and +watch me from thence.’</p> +<p>“And he was gone;—you might have heard her heart beating +while the moon very slowly rose, till it shone through the rose-covered +trellises, level with the lily-heads; then she went to the porch and +stood there,—</p> +<p><!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>“And +she saw him walking down toward the gateway-tower, clad in his mail-coat, +with a bright, crestless helmet on his head, and his trenchant sword +newly grinded, girt to his side; and she watched him going between the +yew-trees, which began to throw shadows from the shining of the harvest +moon. She stood there in the porch, and round by the corners of +the eaves of it looked down towards her and the inside of the porch +two serpent-dragons, carved in stone; and on their scales, and about +their leering eyes, grew the yellow lichen; she shuddered as she saw +them stare at her, and drew closer toward the half-open door; she, standing +there, clothed in white from her throat till over her feet, altogether +ungirdled; and her long yellow hair, without plait or band, fell down +behind and lay along her shoulders, quietly, because the night was without +wind, and she too was now standing scarcely moving a muscle.</p> +<p>“She gazed down the line of the yew-trees, and watched how, +as he went for the most part with a firm step, he yet shrank somewhat +from the shadows of the yews; his long brown hair flowing downward, +swayed with him as he walked; and the golden threads interwoven with +it, as the fashion was with the warriors in <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>those +days, sparkled out from among it now and then; and the faint, far-off +moonlight lit up the waves of his mail-coat; he walked fast, and was +disappearing in the shadows of the trees near the moat, but turned before +he was quite lost in them, and waved his ungauntletted hand; then she +heard the challenge of the warder, the falling of the drawbridge, the +swing of the heavy wicket-gate on its hinges; and, into the brightening +lights, and deepening shadows of the moonlight he went from her sight; +and she left the porch and went to the chapel, all that night praying +earnestly there.</p> +<p>“But he came not back again all the next day, and Ella wandered +about that house pale, and fretting her heart away; so when night came +and the moon, she arrayed herself in that same raiment that she had +worn on the night before, and went toward the river and the red pike.</p> +<p>“The broad moon shone right over it by the time she came to +the river; the pike rose up from the other side, and she thought at +first that she would have to go back again, cross over the bridge, and +so get to it; but, glancing down on the river just as she turned, she +saw a little boat fairly gilt and painted, and with a long slender paddle +in it, lying on the water, <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>stretching +out its silken painter as the stream drew it downwards, she entered +it, and taking the paddle made for the other side; the moon meanwhile +turning the eddies to silver over the dark green water: she landed beneath +the shadow of that great pile of sandstone, where the grass grew green, +and the flowers sprung fair right up to the foot of the bare barren +rock; it was cut in many steps till it reached the cave, which was overhung +by creepers and matted grass; the stream swept the boat downwards, and +Ella, her heart beating so as almost to stop her breath, mounted the +steps slowly, slowly. She reached at last the platform below the +cave, and turning, gave a long gaze at the moonlit country; ‘her +last,’ she said; then she moved, and the cave hid her as the water +of the warm seas close over the pearl-diver.</p> +<p>“Just so the night before had it hidden Lawrence. And +they never came back, they two:—never, the people say. I +wonder what their love has grown to now; ah! they love, I know, but +cannot find each other yet, I wonder also if they ever will.”</p> +<p>So spoke Hugh the white-haired. But he who sat over against +him, a soldier as it seemed, black-bearded, with wild grey eyes that +his great brows hung over far; he, while the others <!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>sat +still, awed by some vague sense of spirits being very near them; this +man, Giles, cried out—“Never? old Hugh, it is not so.—Speak! +I cannot tell you how it happened, but I know it was not so, not so:—speak +quick, Hugh! tell us all, all!”</p> +<p>“Wait a little, my son, wait,” said Hugh; “the +people indeed said they never came back again at all, but I, but I—Ah! +the time is long past over.” So he was silent, and sank +his head on his breast, though his old thin lips moved, as if he talked +softly to himself, and the light of past days flickered in his eyes.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Giles sat with his hands clasped finger over finger, tightly, +“till the knuckles whitened;” his lips were pressed firmly +together; his breast heaved as though it would burst, as though it must +be rid of its secret. Suddenly he sprang up, and in a voice that +was a solemn chant, began: “In full daylight, long ago, on a slumberously-wrathful, +thunderous afternoon of summer;”—then across his chant ran +the old man’s shrill voice: “On an October day, packed close +with heavy-lying mist, which was more than mere autumn-mist:”—the +solemn stately chanting dropped, the shrill voice went on; Giles sank +down again, and Hugh standing there, swaying to and fro to the <!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>measured +ringing of his own shrill voice, his long beard moving with him, said:—</p> +<p>“On such a day, warm, and stifling so that one could scarcely +breathe even down by the sea-shore, I went from bed to bed in the hospital +of the pest-laden city with my soothing draughts and medicines. +And there went with me a holy woman, her face pale with much watching; +yet I think even without those same desolate lonely watchings her face +would still have been pale. She was not beautiful, her face being +somewhat peevish-looking; apt, she seemed, to be made angry by trifles, +and, even on her errand of mercy, she spoke roughly to those she tended:—no, +she was not beautiful, yet I could not help gazing at her, for her eyes +were very beautiful and looked out from her ugly face as a fair maiden +might look from a grim prison between the window-bars of it.</p> +<p>“So, going through that hospital, I came to a bed at last, +whereon lay one who had not been struck down by fever or plague, but +had been smitten through the body with a sword by certain robbers, so +that he had narrowly escaped death. Huge of frame, with stern +suffering face he lay there; and I came to him, and asked him of his +hurt, and how he fared, while the day grew slowly toward even, in that +<!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>pest-chamber +looking toward the west; the sister came to him soon and knelt down +by his bed-side to tend him.</p> +<p>“O Christ! As the sun went down on that dim misty day, +the clouds and the thickly-packed mist cleared off, to let him shine +on us, on that chamber of woes and bitter unpurifying tears; and the +sunlight wrapped those two, the sick man and the ministering woman, +shone on them—changed, changed utterly. Good Lord! +How was I struck dumb, nay, almost blinded by that change; for there—yes +there, while no man but I wondered; there, instead of the unloving nurse, +knelt a wonderfully beautiful maiden, clothed all in white, and with +long golden hair down her back. Tenderly she gazed at the wounded +man, as her hands were put about his head, lifting it up from the pillow +but a very little; and he no longer the grim, strong wounded man, but +fair, and in the first bloom of youth; a bright polished helmet crowned +his head, a mail-coat flowed over his breast, and his hair streamed +down long from his head, while from among it here and there shone out +threads of gold.</p> +<p>“So they spake thus in a quiet tone: ‘Body and soul together +again, Ella, love; how long will it be now before the last time of all?’ +<!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>‘Long,’ +she said, ‘but the years pass; talk no more, dearest, but let +us think only, for the time is short, and our bodies call up memories, +change love to better even than it was in the old time.’</p> +<p>“Silence so, while you might count a hundred, then with a great +sigh: ‘Farewell, Ella, for long,’—‘Farewell, +Lawrence,’ and the sun sank, all was as before.</p> +<p>“But I stood at the foot of the bed pondering, till the sister +coming to me, said: ‘Master Physician, this is no time for dreaming; +act—the patients are waiting, the fell sickness grows worse in +this hot close air; feel’—(and she swung open the casement), +‘the outer air is no fresher than the air inside; the wind blows +dead toward the west, coming from the stagnant marshes; the sea is like +a stagnant pool too, you can scarce hear the sound of the long, low +surge breaking.’ I turned from her and went up to the sick +man, and said: ‘Sir Knight, in spite of all the sickness about +you, you yourself better strangely, and another month will see you with +your sword girt to your side again.’ ‘Thanks, kind +master Hugh,’ he said, but impatiently, as if his mind were on +other things, and he turned in his bed away from me restlessly.</p> +<p>“And till late that night I ministered to the <!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>sick +in that hospital; but when I went away, I walked down to the sea, and +paced there to and fro over the hard sand: and the moon showed bloody +with the hot mist, which the sea would not take on its bosom, though +the dull east wind blew it onward continually. I walked there +pondering till a noise from over the sea made me turn and look that +way; what was that coming over the sea? Laus Deo! the <span class="smcap">west +wind</span>: Hurrah! I feel the joy I felt then over again now, +in all its intensity. How came it over the sea? first, far out +to sea, so that it was only just visible under the red-gleaming moonlight, +far out to sea, while the mists above grew troubled, and wavered, a +long level bar of white; it grew nearer quickly, it gathered form, strange, +misty, intricate form—the ravelled foam of the green sea; then +oh! hurrah! I was wrapped in it,—the cold salt spray—drenched +with it, blinded by it, and when I could see again, I saw the great +green waves rising, nodding and breaking, all coming on together; and +over them from wave to wave leaped the joyous <span class="smcap">west +wind</span>; and the mist and the plague clouds were sweeping back eastward +in wild swirls; and right away were they swept at last, till they brooded +over the face of the dismal stagnant meres, many miles <!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>away +from our fair city, and there they pondered wrathfully on their defeat.</p> +<p>“But somehow my life changed from the time when I beheld the +two lovers, and I grew old quickly.” He ceased; then after +a short silence said again: “And that was long ago, very long +ago, I know not when it happened.” So he sank back again, +and for a while no one spoke; till Giles said at last:</p> +<p>“Once in full daylight I saw a vision, while I was waking, +while the eyes of men were upon me; long ago on the afternoon of a thunderous +summer day, I sat alone in my fair garden near the city; for on that +day a mighty reward was to be given to the brave man who had saved us +all, leading us so mightily in that battle a few days back; now the +very queen, the lady of the land, whom all men reverenced almost as +the Virgin Mother, so kind and good and beautiful she was, was to crown +him with flowers and gird a sword about him; after the ‘Te Deum’ +had been sung for the victory, and almost all the city were at that +time either in the Church, or hard by it, or else were by the hill that +was near the river where the crowning was to be: but I sat alone in +the garden of my house as I said; sat grieving for the loss of my brave +brother, who was slain by my side in <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>that +same fight. I sat beneath an elm tree; and as I sat and pondered +on that still, windless day, I heard suddenly a breath of air rustle +through the boughs of the elm. I looked up, and my heart almost +stopped beating, I knew not why, as I watched the path of that breeze +over the bowing lilies and the rushes by the fountain; but when I looked +to the place whence the breeze had come, I became all at once aware +of an appearance that told me why my heart stopped beating. Ah! +there they were, those two whom before I had but seen in dreams by night, +now before my waking eyes in broad daylight. One, a knight (for +so he seemed), with long hair mingled with golden threads, flowing over +his mail-coat, and a bright crestless helmet on his head, his face sad-looking, +but calm; and by his side, but not touching him, walked a wondrously +fair maiden, clad in white, her eyelids just shadowing her blue eyes: +her arms and hands seeming to float along with her as she moved on quickly, +yet very softly; great rest on them both, though sorrow gleamed through +it.</p> +<p>“When they came opposite to where I stood, these two stopped +for a while, being in nowise shadowy, as I have heard men say ghosts +are, but clear and distinct. They stopped close by <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>me, +as I stood motionless, unable to pray; they turned to each other, face +to face, and the maiden said, ‘Love, for this our last true meeting +before the end of all, we need a witness; let this man, softened by +sorrow, even as we are, go with us.’</p> +<p>“I never heard such music as her words were; though I used +to wonder when I was young whether the angels in heaven sung better +than the choiresters sang in our church, and though, even then the sound +of the triumphant hymn came up to me in a breath of wind, and floated +round me, making dreams, in that moment of awe and great dread, of the +old long-past days in that old church, of her who lay under the pavement +of it; whose sweet voice once, once long ago, once only to me—yet +I shall see her again.” He became silent as he said this, +and no man cared to break in upon his thoughts, seeing the choking movement +in his throat, the fierce clenching of hand and foot, the stiffening +of the muscles all over him; but soon, with an upward jerk of his head, +he threw back the long elf locks that had fallen over his eyes while +his head was bent down, and went on as before:</p> +<p>“The knight passed his hand across his brow, as if to clear +away some mist that had <!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>gathered +there, and said, in a deep murmurous voice, ‘Why the last time, +dearest, why the last time? Know you not how long a time remains +yet? the old man came last night to the ivory house and told me it would +be a hundred years, ay, more, before the happy end.’ ‘So +long,’ she said; ‘so long: ah! love, what things words are; +yet this is the last time; alas! alas! for the weary years! my words, +my sin!’ ‘O love, it is very terrible,’ he said; +‘I could almost weep, old though I am, and grown cold with dwelling +in the ivory house: O, Ella, if you only knew how cold it is there, +in the starry nights when the north wind is stirring; and there is no +fair colour there, nought but the white ivory, with one narrow line +of gleaming gold over every window, and a fathom’s-breadth of +burnished gold behind the throne. Ella, it was scarce well done +of you to send me to the ivory house.’ ‘Is it so cold, +love?’ she said, ‘I knew it not; forgive me! but as to the +matter of a witness, some one we must have, and why not this man?’ +‘Rather old Hugh,’ he said, ‘or Cuthbert, his father; +they have both been witnesses before.’ ‘Cuthbert,’ +said the maiden, solemnly, ‘has been dead twenty years; Hugh died +last night.’” (Now, as Giles said these words, carelessly, +as <!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>though +not heeding them particularly, a cold sickening shudder ran through +the other two men, but he noted it not and went on.) “‘This +man then be it,’ said the knight, and therewith they turned again, +and moved on side by side as before; nor said they any word to me, and +yet I could not help following them, and we three moved on together, +and soon I saw that my nature was changed, and that I was invisible +for the time; for, though the sun was high, I cast no shadow, neither +did any man that we past notice us, as we made toward the hill by the +riverside.</p> +<p>“And by the time we came there the queen was sitting at the +top of it, under a throne of purple and gold, with a great band of knights +gloriously armed on either side of her; and their many banners floated +over them. Then I felt that those two had left me, and that my +own right visible nature was returned; yet still did I feel strange, +and as if I belonged not wholly to this earth. And I heard one +say, in a low voice to his fellow, ‘See, sir Giles is here after +all; yet, how came he here, and why is he not in armour among the noble +knights yonder, he who fought so well? how wild he looks too!’ +‘Poor knight,’ said the other, ‘he is distraught with +the loss of his brother; let <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>him +be; and see, here comes the noble stranger knight, our deliverer.’ +As he spoke, we heard a great sound of trumpets, and therewithall a +long line of knights on foot wound up the hill towards the throne, and +the queen rose up, and the people shouted; and, at the end of all the +procession went slowly and majestically the stranger knight; a man of +noble presence he was, calm, and graceful to look on; grandly he went +amid the gleaming of their golden armour; himself clad in the rent mail +and tattered surcoat he had worn on the battle-day; bareheaded, too; +for, in that fierce fight, in the thickest of it, just where he rallied +our men, one smote off his helmet, and another, coming from behind, +would have slain him, but that my lance bit into his breast.</p> +<p>“So, when they had come within some twenty paces of the throne, +the rest halted, and he went up by himself toward the queen; and she, +taking the golden hilted sword in her left hand, with her right caught +him by the wrist, when he would have knelt to her, and held him so, +tremblingly, and cried out, ‘No, no, thou noblest of all knights, +kneel not to me; have we not heard of thee even before thou camest hither? +how many widows bless thee, how many orphans pray for thee, how <!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>many +happy ones that would be widows and orphans but for thee, sing to their +children, sing to their sisters, of thy flashing sword, and the heart +that guides it! And now, O noble one! thou hast done the very +noblest deed of all, for thou hast kept grown men from weeping shameful +tears! O truly, the greatest I can do for thee is very little; +yet, see this sword, golden-hilted, and the stones flash out from it,’ +(then she hung it round him), ‘and see this wreath of lilies and +roses for thy head; lilies no whiter than thy pure heart, roses no tenderer +than thy true love; and here, before all these my subjects, I fold thee, +noblest, in my arms, so, so.’ Ay, truly it was strange enough! +those two were together again; not the queen and the stranger knight, +but the young-seeming knight and the maiden I had seen in the garden. +To my eyes they clung together there; though they say, that to the eyes +of all else, it was but for a moment that the queen held both his hands +in hers; to me also, amid the shouting of the multitude, came an under +current of happy song: ‘Oh! truly, very truly, my noblest, a hundred +years will not be long after this.’ ‘Hush, Ella, dearest, +for talking makes the time speed; think only.’</p> +<p>“Pressed close to each other, as I saw it, <!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>their +bosoms heaved—but I looked away—alas! when I looked again, +I saw nought but the stately stranger knight, descending, hand in hand, +with the queen, flushed with joy and triumph, and the people scattering +flowers before them.</p> +<p>“And that was long ago, very long ago.” So he ceased; +then Osric, one of the two younger men, who had been sitting in awe-struck +silence all this time, said, with eyes that dared not meet Giles’s, +in a terrified half whisper, as though he meant not to speak, “How +long?” Giles turned round and looked him full in the face, +till he dragged his eyes up to his own, then said, “More than +a hundred years ago.”</p> +<p>So they all sat silent, listening to the roar of the south-west wind; +and it blew the windows so, that they rocked in their frames.</p> +<p>Then suddenly, as they sat thus, came a knock at the door of the +house; so Hugh bowed his head to Osric, to signify that he should go +and open the door; so he arose, trembling, and went.</p> +<p>And as he opened the door the wind blew hard against him, and blew +something white against his face, then blew it away again, and his face +was blanched, even to his lips; but he plucking up heart of grace, looked +out, and there he saw, standing with her face upturned <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>in +speech to him, a wonderfully beautiful woman, clothed from her throat +till over her feet in long white raiment, ungirt, unbroidered, and with +a veil, that was thrown off from her face, and hung from her head, streaming +out in the blast of the wind: which veil was what had struck against +his face: beneath her veil her golden hair streamed out too, and with +the veil, so that it touched his face now and then. She was very +fair, but she did not look young either, because of her statue-like +features. She spoke to him slowly and queenly; “I pray you +give me shelter in your house for an hour, that I may rest, and so go +on my journey again.” He was too much terrified to answer +in words, and so only bowed his head: and she swept past him in stately +wise to the room where the others sat, and he followed her, trembling.</p> +<p>A cold shiver ran through the other men when she entered and bowed +low to them, and they turned deadly pale, but dared not move; and there +she sat while they gazed at her, sitting there and wondering at her +beauty, which seemed to grow every minute; though she was plainly not +young, oh no, but rather very, very old, who could say how old? there +she sat, and her long, long hair swept down in one curve from her head +and just touched the floor. Her face had the <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>tokens +of a deep sorrow on it, ah! a mighty sorrow, yet not so mighty as that +it might mar her ineffable loveliness; that sorrow-mark seemed to gather +too, and at last the gloriously-slow music of her words flowed from +her lips: “Friends, has one with the appearance of a youth come +here lately; one with long brown hair, interwoven with threads of gold, +flowing down from out his polished steel helmet; with dark blue eyes +and high white forehead, and mail-coat over his breast, where the light +and shadow lie in waves as he moves; have you seen such an one, very +beautiful?”</p> +<p>Then withall as they shook their heads fearfully in answer, a great +sigh rose up from her heart, and she said: “Then must I go away +again presently, and yet I thought it was the last night of all.”</p> +<p>And so she sat awhile with her head resting on her hand; after, she +arose as if about to go, and turned her glorious head round to thank +the master of the house; and they, strangely enough, though they were +terrified at her presence, were yet grieved when they saw that she was +going.</p> +<p>Just then the wind rose higher than ever before, yet through the +roar of it they could all hear plainly a knocking at the door again; +<!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>so +the lady stopped when she heard it, and, turning, looked full in the +face of Herman the youngest, who thereupon, being constrained by that +look, rose and went to the door; and as before with Osric, so now the +wind blew strong against him; and it blew into his face, so as to blind +him, tresses of soft brown hair mingled with glittering threads of gold; +and blinded so, he heard some one ask him musically, solemnly, if a +lady with golden hair and white raiment was in that house; so Herman, +not answering in words, because of his awe and fear, merely bowed his +head; then he was ’ware of some one in bright armour passing him, +for the gleam of it was all about him, for as yet he could not see clearly, +being blinded by the hair that had floated about him.</p> +<p>But presently he followed him into the room, and there stood such +an one as the lady had described; the wavering flame of the light gleamed +from his polished helmet, touched the golden threads that mingled with +his hair, ran along the rings of his mail.</p> +<p>They stood opposite to each other for a little, he and the lady, +as if they were somewhat shy of each other after their parting of a +hundred years, in spite of the love which they had for each other: at +last he made one step, and took <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>off +his gleaming helmet, laid it down softly, then spread abroad his arms, +and she came to him, and they were clasped together, her head lying +over his shoulder; and the four men gazed, quite awe-struck.</p> +<p>And as they gazed, the bells of the church began to ring, for it +was New-Year’s-eve; and still they clung together, and the bells +rang on, and the old year died.</p> +<p>And there beneath the eyes of those four men the lovers slowly faded +away into a heap of snow-white ashes. Then the four men kneeled +down and prayed, and the next day they went to the priest, and told +him all that had happened.</p> +<p>So the people took those ashes and buried them in their church, in +a marble tomb, and above it they caused to be carved their figures lying +with clasped hands; and on the sides of it the history of the cave in +the red pike.</p> +<p>And in my dream I saw the moon shining on the tomb, throwing fair +colours on it from the painted glass; till a sound of music rose, deepened, +and fainted; then I woke.</p> +<h2><!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>GOLDEN +WINGS</h2> +<blockquote><p>Lyf lythes to nee,<br /> +Twa wordes or three,<br /> +Of one who was fair and free,<br /> + And fele in his fight.</p> +<p>—<i>Sir Percival</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I suppose my birth was somewhat after the birth of Sir Percival of +Galles, for I never saw my father, and my mother brought me up quaintly; +not like a poor man’s son, though, indeed, we had little money, +and lived in a lone place: it was on a bit of waste land near a river; +moist, and without trees; on the drier parts of it folks had built cottages—see, +I can count them on my fingers—six cottages, of which ours was +one.</p> +<p>Likewise, there was a little chapel, with a yew tree and graves in +the church-yard—graves—yes, a great many graves, more than +in the yards of many Minsters I have seen, because people fought a battle +once near us, and buried many bodies in deep pits, to the east of the +chapel; but this was before I was born.</p> +<p>I have talked to old knights since who fought in that battle, and +who told me that it was all about a lady that they fought; indeed, this +lady, who was a queen, was afterwards, by her own wish, buried in the +aforesaid chapel in a most <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>fair +tomb; her image was of latoun gilt, and with a colour on it; her hands +and face were of silver, and her hair, gilded and most curiously wrought, +flowed down from her head over the marble.</p> +<p>It was a strange sight to see that gold and brass and marble inside +that rough chapel which stood on the marshy common, near the river.</p> +<p>Now, every St. Peter’s day, when the sun was at its hottest, +in the mid-summer noontide, my mother (though at other times she only +wore such clothes as the folk about us) would dress herself most richly, +and shut the shutters against all the windows, and light great candles, +and sit as though she were a queen, till the evening: sitting and working +at a frame, and singing as she worked.</p> +<p>And what she worked at was two wings, wrought in gold, on a blue +ground.</p> +<p>And as for what she sung, I could never understand it, though I know +now it was not in Latin.</p> +<p>And she used to charge me straightly never to let any man into the +house on St. Peter’s day; therefore, I and our dog, which was +a great old bloodhound, always kept the door together.</p> +<p>But one St. Peter’s day, when I was nearly twenty, I sat in +the house watching the door <!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>with +the bloodhound, and I was sleepy, because of the shut-up heat and my +mother’s singing, so I began to nod, and at last, though the dog +often shook me by the hair to keep me awake, went fast asleep, and began +to dream a foolish dream without hearing, as men sometimes do: for I +thought that my mother and I were walking to mass through the snow on +a Christmas day, but my mother carried a live goose in her hand, holding +it by the neck, instead of her rosary, and that I went along by her +side, not walking, but turning somersaults like a mountebank, my head +never touching the ground; when we got to the chapel door, the old priest +met us, and said to my mother, ‘Why dame alive, your head is turned +green! Ah! never mind, I will go and say mass, but don’t +let little Mary there go,’ and he pointed to the goose, and went.</p> +<p>Then mass begun, but in the midst of it, the priest said out aloud, +‘Oh I forgot,’ and turning round to us began to wag his +grey head and white beard, throwing his head right back, and sinking +his chin on his breast alternately; and when we saw him do this, we +presently began also to knock our heads against the wall, keeping time +with him and with each other, till the priest said, ‘Peter! it’s +dragon-time now,’ whereat the roof flew off, and a great yellow +dragon <!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>came +down on the chapel-floor with a flop, and danced about clumsily, wriggling +his fat tail, and saying to a sort of tune, ‘O the Devil, the +Devil, the Devil, O the Devil,’ so I went up to him, and put my +hand on his breast, meaning to slay him, and so awoke, and found myself +standing up with my hand on the breast of an armed knight; the door +lay flat on the ground, and under it lay Hector, our dog, whining and +dying.</p> +<p>For eight hours I had been asleep; on awaking, the blood rushed up +into my face, I heard my mother’s low mysterious song behind me, +and knew not what harm might happen to her and me, if that knight’s +coming made her cease in it; so I struck him with my left hand, where +his face was bare under his mail-coif, and getting my sword in my light +hand, drove its point under his hawberk, so that it came out behind, +and he fell, turned over on his face, and died.</p> +<p>Then, because my mother still went on working and singing, I said +no word, but let him lie there, and put the door up again, and found +Hector dead.</p> +<p>I then sat down again and polished my sword with a piece of leather +after I had wiped the blood from it; and in an hour my mother arose +from her work, and raising me from where I <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>was +sitting, kissed my brow, saying, ‘Well done, Lionel, you have +slain our greatest foe, and now the people will know you for what you +are before you die—Ah God! though not before <i>I</i> die.’</p> +<p>So I said, ‘Who is he, mother? he seems to be some Lord; am +I a Lord then?’</p> +<p>‘A King, if the people will but know it,’ she said.</p> +<p>Then she knelt down by the dead body, turned it round again, so that +it lay face uppermost, as before, then said:</p> +<p>‘And so it has all come to this, has it? To think that +you should run on my son’s sword-point at last, after all the +wrong you have done me and mine; now must I work carefully, least when +you are dead you should still do me harm, for that you are a King—Lionel!’</p> +<p>‘Yea, Mother.’</p> +<p>‘Come here and see; this is what I have wrought these many +Peter’s days by day, and often other times by night.’</p> +<p>‘It is a surcoat, Mother; for me?’</p> +<p>‘Yea, but take a spade, and come into the wood.’</p> +<p>So we went, and my mother gazed about her for a while as if she were +looking for something, but then suddenly went forward with her eyes +<!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>on +the ground, and she said to me:</p> +<p>‘Is it not strange, that I who know the very place I am going +to take you to, as well as our own garden, should have a sudden fear +come over me that I should not find it after all; though for these nineteen +years I have watched the trees change and change all about it—ah! +here, stop now.’</p> +<p>We stopped before a great oak; a beech tree was behind us—she +said, ‘Dig, Lionel, hereabouts.’</p> +<p>So I dug and for an hour found nothing but beech roots, while my +mother seemed as if she were going mad, sometimes running about muttering +to herself, sometimes stooping into the hole and howling, sometimes +throwing herself on the grass and twisting her hands together above +her head; she went once down the hill to a pool that had filled an old +gravel pit, and came back dripping and with wild eyes; ‘I am too +hot,’ she said, ‘far too hot this St. Peter’s day.’</p> +<p>Clink just then from my spade against iron; my mother screamed, and +I dug with all my might for another hour, and then beheld a chest of +heavy wood bound with iron ready to be heaved out of the hole; ‘Now +Lionel weigh it out—hard for your life!’</p> +<p><!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>And +with some trouble I got the chest out; she gave me a key, I unlocked +the chest, and took out another wrapped in lead, which also I unlocked +with a silver key that my mother gave me, and behold therein lay armour—mail +for the whole body, made of very small rings wrought most wonderfully, +for every ring was fashioned like a serpent, and though they were so +small yet could you see their scales and their eyes, and of some even +the forked tongue was on it, and lay on the rivet, and the rings were +gilded here and there into patterns and flowers so that the gleam of +it was most glorious.—And the mail coif was all gilded and had +red and blue stones at the rivets; and the tilting helms (inside which +the mail lay when I saw it first) was gilded also, and had flowers pricked +out on it; and the chain of it was silver, and the crest was two gold +wings. And there was a shield of blue set with red stones, which +had two gold wings for a cognizance; and the hilt of the sword was gold, +with angels wrought in green and blue all up it, and the eyes in their +wings were of pearls and red stones, and the sheath was of silver with +green flowers on it.</p> +<p>Now when I saw this armour and understood that my mother would have +me put it on, and ride out without fear, leaving her alone, I cast <!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>myself +down on the grass so that I might not see its beauty (for it made me +mad), and strove to think; but what thoughts soever came to me were +only of the things that would be, glory in the midst of ladies, battle-joy +among knights, honour from all kings and princes and people—these +things.</p> +<p>But my mother wept softly above me, till I arose with a great shudder +of delight and drew the edges of the hawberk over my cheek, I liked +so to feel the rings slipping, slipping, till they fell off altogether; +then I said:</p> +<p>‘O Lord God that made the world, if I might only die in this +armour!’</p> +<p>Then my mother helped me to put it on, and I felt strange and new +in it, and yet I had neither lance nor horse.</p> +<p>So when we reached the cottage again she said: ‘See now, Lionel, +you must take this knight’s horse and his lance, and ride away, +or else the people will come here to kill another king; and when you +are gone, you will never see me any more in life.’</p> +<p>I wept thereat, but she said: ‘Nay, but see here.’</p> +<p>And taking the dead knight’s lance from among the garden lilies, +she rent from it the pennon (which had a sword on a red ground <!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>for +bearing), and cast it carelessly on the ground, then she bound about +it a pennon with my bearing, gold wings on a blue ground; she bid me +bear the Knight’s body, all armed as he was, to put on him his +helm and lay him on the floor at her bed’s foot, also to break +his sword and cast it on our hearth-stone; all which things I did.</p> +<p>Afterwards she put the surcoat on me, and then lying down in her +gorgeous raiment on her bed, she spread her arms out in the form of +a cross, shut her eyes, and said:</p> +<p>‘Kiss me, Lionel, for I am tired.’</p> +<p>And after I had kissed her she died.</p> +<p>And I mounted my dead foe’s horse and rode away; neither did +I ever know what wrong that was which he had done me, not while I was +in the body at least.</p> +<p>And do not blame me for not burying my mother; I left her there because, +though she did not say so to me, yet I knew the thoughts of her heart, +and that the thing she had wished so earnestly for these years, and +years, and years, had been but to lie dead with him lying dead close +to her.</p> +<p>So I rode all that night for I could not stop, because of the thoughts +that were in me, and, stopping at this place and that, in three days +came to the city.</p> +<p><!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>And +there the King held his court with great pomp.</p> +<p>And so I went to the palace, and asked to see the King; whereupon +they brought me into the great hall where he was with all his knights, +and my heart swelled within me to think that I too was a King.</p> +<p>So I prayed him to make me a knight, and he spake graciously and +asked me my name; so when I had told it him, and said that I was a king’s +son, he pondered, not knowing what to do, for I could not tell him whose +son I was.</p> +<p>Whereupon one of the knights came near me and shaded his eyes with +his hand as one does in a bright sun, meaning to mock at me for my shining +armour, and he drew nearer and nearer till his long stiff beard just +touched me, and then I smote him on the face, and he fell on the floor.</p> +<p>So the king being in a rage, roared out from the door, ‘Slay +him!’ but I put my shield before me and drew my sword, and the +women drew together aside and whispered fearfully, and while some of +the knights took spears and stood about me, others got their armour +on.</p> +<p>And as we stood thus we heard a horn blow, and then an armed knight +came into the hall and drew near to the King; and one of the maidens +<!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>behind +me, came and laid her hand on my shoulder; so I turned and saw that +she was very fair, and then I was glad, but she whispered to me: ‘Sir +Squire for a love I have for your face and gold armour, I will give +you good counsel; go presently to the King and say to him: “In +the name of Alys des roses and Sir Guy le bon amant I pray you three +boons,”—do this, and you will be alive, and a knight by +to-morrow, otherwise I think hardly the one or the other.’</p> +<p>‘The Lord reward you damoyzel,’ I said. Then I +saw that the King had left talking with that knight and was just going +to stand up and say something out loud, so I went quickly and called +out with a loud voice:</p> +<p>‘O King Gilbert of the rose-land, I, Lionel of the golden wings, +pray of you three boons in the name of Alys des roses and Sir Guy le +bon amant.’</p> +<p>Then the King gnashed his teeth because he had promised if ever his +daughter Alys des roses came back safe again, he would on that day grant +any three boons to the first man who asked them, even if he were his +greatest foe. He said, ‘Well, then, take them, what are +they?’</p> +<p>‘First, my life; then, that you should make me a knight; and +thirdly, that you should take me into your service.’</p> +<p><!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>He +said, ‘I will do this, and moreover, I forgive you freely if you +will be my true man.’ Then we heard shouting arise through +all the city because they were bringing the Lady Alys from the ship +up to the palace, and the people came to the windows, and the houses +were hung with cloths and banners of silk and gold, that swung down +right from the eaves to the ground; likewise the bells all rang: and +within a while they entered the palace, and the trumpets rang and men +shouted, so that my head whirled; and they entered the hall, and the +King went down from the dais to meet them.</p> +<p>Now a band of knights and of damoyzels went before and behind, and +in the midst Sir Guy led the Lady Alys by the hand, and he was a most +stately knight, strong and fair.</p> +<p>And I indeed noted the first band of knights and damoyzels well, +and wondered at the noble presence of the knights, and was filled with +joy when I beheld the maids, because of their great beauty; the second +band I did not see, for when they passed I was leaning back against +the wall, wishing to die with my hands before my face. But when +I could see, she was hanging about her father’s neck, weeping, +and she never left him all that night, but held his hand in feast and +dance, and even when I was made knight, while <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>the +king with his right hand laid his sword over my shoulder, she held his +left hand and was close to me.</p> +<p>And the next day they held a grand tourney, that I might be proven; +and I had never fought with knights before, yet I did not doubt. +And Alys sat under a green canopy, that she might give the degree to +the best knight, and by her sat the good knight Sir Guy, in a long robe, +for he did not mean to joust that day; and indeed at first none but +young knights jousted, for they thought that I should not do much.</p> +<p>But I, looking up to the green canopy, overthrew so many of them, +that the elder knights began to arm, and I grew most joyful as I met +them, and no man unhorsed me; and always I broke my spear fairly, or +else overthrew my adversary.</p> +<p>Now that maiden who counselled me in the hall, told me afterwards +that as I fought, the Lady Alys held fast to the rail before her, and +leaned forward and was most pale, never answering any word that any +one might say to her, till the Knight Guy said to her in anger: ‘Alys! +what ails you? you would have been glad enough to speak to me when King +Wadrayns carried you off shrieking, or that other time when the chain +went round about you, and the faggots <!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>began +to smoke in the Brown City: do you not love me any longer? O Alys, +Alys! just think a little, and do not break your faith with me; God +hates nothing so much as this. Sweet, try to love me, even for +your own sake! See, am I not kind to you?’</p> +<p>That maiden said that she turned round to him wonderingly, as if +she had not caught his meaning, and that just for one second, then stretched +out over the lists again.</p> +<p>Now till about this time I had made no cry as I jousted. But +there came against me a very tall knight, on a great horse, and when +we met our spears both shivered, and he howled with vexation, for he +wished to slay me, being the brother of that knight I had struck down +in the hall the day before.</p> +<p>And they say that when Alys heard his howl sounding faintly through +the bars of his great helm, she trembled; but I know not, for I was +stronger than that knight, and when we fought with swords, I struck +him right out of his saddle, and near slew him with that stroke.</p> +<p>Whereupon I shouted ‘Alys’ out loud, and she blushed +red for pleasure, and Sir Guy took note of it, and rose up in a rage +and ran down and armed.</p> +<p>Then presently I saw a great knight come <!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>riding +in with three black chevrons on a gold shield: and so he began to ride +at me, and at first we only broke both our spears, but then he drew +his sword, and fought quite in another way to what the other knights +had, so that I saw at once that I had no chance against him: nevertheless, +for a long time he availed nothing, though he wounded me here and there, +but at last drove his sword right through mine, through my shield and +my helm, and I fell, and lay like one dead.</p> +<p>And thereat the King cried out to cease, and the degree was given +to Sir Guy, because I had overthrown forty knights and he had overthrown +me.</p> +<p>Then they told me, I was carried out of the lists and laid in a hostelry +near the palace, and Guy went up to the pavilion where Alys was and +she crowned him, both of them being very pale, for she doubted if I +were slain, and he knew that she did not love him, thinking before that +she did; for he was good and true, and had saved her life and honour, +and she (poor maid!) wished to please her father, and strove to think +that all was right.</p> +<p>But I was by no means slain, for the sword had only cleft my helm, +and when I came to myself again I felt despair of all things, because +<!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>I +knew not that she loved me, for how should she, knowing nothing of me? +likewise dust had been cast on my gold wings, and she saw it done.</p> +<p>Then I heard a great crying in the street, that sounded strangely +in the quiet night, so I sent to ask what it might be: and there came +presently into my chamber a man in gilded armour; he was an old man, +and his hair and beard were gray, and behind him came six men armed, +who carried a dead body of a young man between them, and I said, ‘What +is it? who is he?’ Then the old man, whose head was heavy +for grief, said: ‘Oh, sir! this is my son; for as we went yesterday +with our merchandize some twenty miles from this fair town, we passed +by a certain hold, and therefrom came a knight and men at arms, who +when my son would have fought with them, overthrew him and bound him, +and me and all our men they said they would slay if we did ought; so +then they cut out my son’s eyes, and cut off his hands, and then +said, “The Knight of High Gard takes these for tribute.” +Therewithal they departed, taking with them my son’s eyes and +his hands on a platter; and when they were gone I would have followed +them, and slain some of them at least, but my own people <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>would +not suffer me, and for grief and pain my son’s heart burst, and +he died, and behold I am here.’</p> +<p>Then I thought I could win glory, and I was much rejoiced thereat, +and said to the old man,</p> +<p>‘Would you love to be revenged?’</p> +<p>But he set his teeth, and pulled at the skirt of his surcoat, as +hardly for his passion he said, ‘Yes.’</p> +<p>‘Then,’ I said, ‘I will go and try to slay this +knight, if you will show me the way to La Haute Garde.’</p> +<p>And he, taking my hand, said, ‘O glorious knight, let us go +now!’ And he did not ask who I was, or whether I was a good +knight, but began to go down the stairs at once, so I put on my armour +and followed him.</p> +<p>And we two set forth alone to La Haute Garde, for no man else dared +follow us, and I rejoiced in thinking that while Guy was sitting at +the King’s table feasting, I was riding out to slay the King’s +enemies, for it never once seemed possible to me that I should be worsted.</p> +<p>It was getting light again by then we came in sight of High Gard; +we wound up the hill on foot, for it was very steep; I blew at the gates +a great blast which was even as though the stag <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>should +blow his own mort, or like the blast that Balen heard.</p> +<p>For in a very short while the gates opened and a great band of armed +men, more than thirty I think, and a knight on horseback among them, +who was armed in red, stood before us, and on one side of him was a +serving man with a silver dish, on the other, one with a butcher’s +cleaver, a knife, and pincers.</p> +<p>So when the knight saw us he said, ‘What, are you come to pay +tribute in person, old man, and is this another fair son? Good +sir, how is your lady?’</p> +<p>So I said grimly, being in a rage, ‘I have a will to slay you.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>not +seem to be in my body, but in the world, or the sky, or something of +that sort.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And when I woke, scarce knowing whether I was in the world or heaven +or hell, I heard some one singing.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>‘He was fair and free,<br /> +At every tourney<br /> +He wan the degree,<br /> + Sir Guy the good knight.</p> +<p><!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>’He +wan Alys the fair,<br /> +The King’s own daughtere,<br /> +With all her gold hair,<br /> + That shone well bright.</p> +<p>‘He saved a good Knight,<br /> +Who also was wight,<br /> +And had wingès bright<br /> + On a blue shield.</p> +<p>‘And he slew the Knight<br /> +Of the High Gard in fight,<br /> +In red weed that was dight<br /> + In the open field.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>So I told him how that I thanked him with <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>must</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>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.</p> +<p>Thereat I was very glad, and walked to meet her smiling, but she +was very grave, and said:</p> +<p>‘Fair sir, the Lady Alys des roses wishes to see you in her +chamber.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>the +heavy silken hangings that filled the doorway.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>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.</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Also she would take my sword and lay it on her knees and talk to +it, telling it how much she loved me.</p> +<p>Yea in all things, O Lord God, Thou knowest that my love was a very +child, like thy angels. <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>Oh! +my wise soft-handed love! endless passion! endless longing always satisfied!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Well,—what would you have? in this world never yet could two +thousand men stand against twenty thousand; we were almost pushed back +<!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Yet thereby was I nearly slain, for they surrounded me, only Sir +William and the <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>others +charged out and rescued me, but hardly.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>make +her marry Sir Guy le bon amant.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<p>‘Now, O Love, we must part for a little, it is time for me +to go and die.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ she said, ‘you will let me have you yet a +little longer, I see; also let me kiss your feet.’</p> +<p>She threw herself down and kissed them, and then did not get up again +at once, but lay there holding my feet.</p> +<p>And while she lay there, behold a sudden tramping that she did not +hear, and over the <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>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.</p> +<p>‘Will not somebody weep for my darling?’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And then I heard my darling shriek.</p> +<h2><!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>SVEND +AND HIS BRETHREN</h2> +<p>A king in the olden time ruled over a mighty nation: a proud man +he must have been, any man who was king of that nation: hundreds of +lords, each a prince over many people, sat about him in the council +chamber, under the dim vault, that was blue like the vault of heaven, +and shone with innumerable glistenings of golden stars.</p> +<p>North, south, east, and west spread that land of his, the sea did +not stop it; his empire clomb the high mountains, and spread abroad +its arms over the valleys of them; all along the sea-line shore cities +set with their crowns of towers in the midst of broad bays, each fit, +it seemed, to be a harbour for the navies of all the world.</p> +<p>Inland the pastures and cornlands lay, chequered much with climbing, +over-tumbling grape vines, under the sun that crumbled their clods, +and drew up the young wheat in the spring-time, under the rain that +made the long grass soft and fine, under all fair fertilising influences: +the streams leapt down from the mountain tops, or cleft their way through +the ridged ravines; they grew great rivers, like seas each one.</p> +<p>The mountains were cloven, and gave forth from their scarred sides +wealth of ore and <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>splendour +of marble; all things this people that King Valdemar ruled over could +do; they levelled mountains, that over the smooth roads the wains might +go, laden with silk and spices from the sea: they drained lakes, that +the land might yield more and more, as year by year the serfs, driven +like cattle, but worse fed, worse housed, died slowly, scarce knowing +that they had souls; they builded them huge ships, and said that they +were masters of the sea too; only, I trow the sea was an unruly subject, +and often sent them back their ships cut into more pieces than the pines +of them were, when the adze first fell upon them; they raised towers, +and bridges, and marble palaces with endless corridors rose-scented, +and cooled with welling fountains.</p> +<p>They sent great armies and fleets to all the points of heaven that +the wind blows from, who took and burned many happy cities, wasted many +fields and valleys, blotted out from the memory of men the names of +nations, made their men’s lives a hopeless shame and misery to +them, their women’s lives disgrace, and then came home to have +flowers thrown on them in showers, to be feasted and called heroes.</p> +<p>Should not then their king be proud of them? Moreover they +could fashion stone and brass <!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>into +the shapes of men; they could write books; they knew the names of the +stars, and their number; they knew what moved the passions of men in +the hearts of them, and could draw you up cunningly, catalogues of virtues +and vices; their wise men could prove to you that any lie was true, +that any truth was false, till your head grew dizzy, and your heart +sick, and you almost doubted if there were a God.</p> +<p>Should not then their king be proud of them? Their men were +strong in body, and moved about gracefully—like dancers; and the +purple-black, scented hair of their gold-clothed knights seemed to shoot +out rays under the blaze of light that shone like many suns in the king’s +halls. Their women’s faces were very fair in red and white, +their skins fair and half-transparent like the marble of their mountains, +and their voices sounded like the rising of soft music from step to +step of their own white palaces.</p> +<p>Should not then their king be proud of such a people, who seemed +to help so in carrying on the world to its consummate perfection, which +they even hoped their grandchildren would see?</p> +<p>Alas! alas! they were slaves—king and priest, noble and burgher, +just as much as the meanest tasked serf, perhaps more even than he, +for <!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>they +were so willingly, but he unwillingly enough.</p> +<p>They could do everything but justice, and truth, and mercy; therefore +God’s judgments hung over their heads, not fallen yet, but surely +to fall one time or other.</p> +<p>For ages past they had warred against one people only, whom they +could not utterly subdue; a feeble people in numbers, dwelling in the +very midst of them, among the mountains; yet now they were pressing +them close; acre after acre, with seas of blood to purchase each acre, +had been wrested from the free people, and their end seemed drawing +near; and this time the king, Valdemar, had marched to their land with +a great army, to make war on them, he boasted to himself, almost for +the last time.</p> +<p>A walled town in the free land; in that town, a house built of rough, +splintery stones; and in a great low-browed room of that house, a grey-haired +man pacing to and fro impatiently: ‘Will she never come?’ +he says, ‘it is two hours since the sun set; news, too, of the +enemy’s being in the land; how dreadful if she is taken!’ +His great broad face is marked with many furrows made by the fierce +restless energy of the man; but there is a wearied look on it, the look +<!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>of +a man who, having done his best, is yet beaten; he seemed to long to +be gone and be at peace: he, the fighter in many battles, who often +had seemed with his single arm to roll back the whole tide of fight, +felt despairing enough now; this last invasion, he thought, must surely +quite settle the matter; wave after wave, wave after wave, had broken +on that dear land and been rolled back from it, and still the hungry +sea pressed on; they must be finally drowned in that sea; how fearfully +they had been tried for their sins. Back again to his anxiety +concerning Cissela, his daughter, go his thoughts, and he still paces +up and down wearily, stopping now and then to gaze intently on things +which he has seen a hundred times; and the night has altogether come +on.</p> +<p>At last the blast of a horn from outside, challenge and counter-challenge, +and the wicket to the court-yard is swung open; for this house, being +in a part of the city where the walls are somewhat weak, is a little +fortress in itself, and is very carefully guarded. The old man’s +face brightened at the sound of the new comers, and he went toward the +entrance of the house where he was met by two young knights fully armed, +and a maiden. ‘Thank God you are come,’ he says; but +stops when he sees her face, which <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>is +quite pale, almost wild with some sorrow. ‘The saints! +Cissela, what is it?’ he says. ‘Father, Eric will +tell you.’ Then suddenly a clang, for Eric has thrown on +the ground a richly-jewelled sword, sheathed, and sets his foot on it, +crunching the pearls on the sheath; then says, flinging up his head,—‘There, +father, the enemy is in the land; may that happen to every one of them! +but for my part I have accounted for two already.’ ‘Son +Eric, son Eric, you talk for ever about yourself; quick, tell me about +Cissela instead: if you go on boasting and talking always about yourself, +you will come to no good end, son, after all.’ But as he +says this, he smiles nevertheless, and his eye glistens.</p> +<p>‘Well, father, listen—such a strange thing she tells +us, not to be believed, if she did not tell us herself; the enemy has +suddenly got generous, one of them at least, which is something of a +disappointment to me—ah! pardon, about my self again; and that +is about myself too. Well, father, what am I to do?—But +Cissela, she wandered some way from her maidens, when—ah! but +I never could tell a story properly, let her tell it herself; here, +Cissela!—well, well, I see she is better employed, talking namely, +how should I know what! with Siur in the <!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>window-seat +yonder—but she told us that, as she wandered almost by herself, +she presently heard shouts and saw many of the enemy’s knights +riding quickly towards her; whereat she knelt only and prayed to God, +who was very gracious to her; for when, as she thought, something dreadful +was about to happen, the chief of the knights (a very noble-looking +man, she said) rescued her, and, after he had gazed earnestly into her +face, told her she might go back again to her own home, and her maids +with her, if only she would tell him where she dwelt and her name; and +withal he sent three knights to escort her some way toward the city; +then he turned and rode away with all his knights but those three, who, +when they knew that he had quite gone, she says, began to talk horribly, +saying things whereof in her terror she understood the import only: +then, before worse came to pass came I and slew two, as I said, and +the other ran away ‘lustily with a good courage’; and that +is the sword of one of the slain knights, or, as one might rather call +them, rascally caitiffs.’</p> +<p>The old man’s thoughts seemed to have gone wandering after +his son had finished; for he said nothing for some time, but at last +spoke dejectedly:</p> +<p><!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>‘Eric, +brave son, when I was your age I too hoped, and my hopes are come to +this at last; you are blind in your hopeful youth, Eric, and do not +see that this king (for the king it certainly was) will crush us, and +not the less surely because he is plainly not ungenerous, but rather +a good, courteous knight. Alas! poor old Gunnar, broken down now +and ready to die, as your country is! How often, in the olden +time, thou used’st to say to thyself, as thou didst ride at the +head of our glorious house, ‘this charge may finish this matter, +this battle must.’ They passed away, those gallant fights, +and still the foe pressed on, and hope, too, slowly ebbed away, as the +boundaries of our land grew less and less: behold this is the last wave +but one or two, and then for a sad farewell to name and freedom. +Yet, surely the end of the world must come when we are swept off the +face of the earth. God waits long, they say, before He avenges +his own.’</p> +<p>As he was speaking, Siur and Cissela came nearer to him, and Cissela, +all traces of her late terror gone from her face now, raising her lips +to his bended forehead, kissed him fondly, and said, with glowing face,</p> +<p>‘Father, how can I help our people? Do they want deaths? +I will die. Do they want <!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>happiness? +I will live miserably through years and years, nor ever pray for death.’</p> +<p>Some hope or other seemed growing up in his heart, and showing through +his face; and he spoke again, putting back the hair from off her face, +and clasping it about with both his hands, while he stooped to kiss +her.</p> +<p>‘God remember your mother, Cissela! Then it was no dream +after all, but true perhaps, as indeed it seemed at the time; but it +must come quickly, that woman’s deliverance, or not at all. +When was it that I heard that old tale, that sounded even then true +to my ears? for we have not been punished for nought, my son; that is +not God’s way. It comes across my memory somehow, mingled +in a wonderful manner with the purple of the pines on the hillside, +with the fragrance of them borne from far towards me; for know, my children, +that in times past, long, long past now, we did an evil deed, for our +forefathers, who have been dead now, and forgiven so long ago, once +mad with rage at some defeat from their enemies, fired a church, and +burned therein many women who had fled thither for refuge; and from +that time a curse cleaves to us. Only they say, that at the last +we may be saved from utter destruction by a woman; I know not. +God grant it may be so.’</p> +<p><!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>Then +she said, ‘Father, brother, and you, Siur, come with me to the +chapel; I wish you to witness me make an oath.’</p> +<p>Her face was pale, her lips were pale, her golden hair was pale; +but not pale, it seemed, from any sinking of blood, but from gathering +of intensest light from somewhere, her eyes perhaps, for they appeared +to burn inwardly.</p> +<p>They followed the sweeping of her purple robe in silence through +the low heavy-beamed passages: they entered the little chapel, dimly +lighted by the moon that night, as it shone through one of the three +arrow-slits of windows at the east end. There was little wealth +of marble there, I trow; little time had those fighting men for stone-smoothing. +Albeit, one noted many semblances of flowers even in the dim half-light, +and here and there the faces of <span class="smcap">brave</span> men, +roughly cut enough, but grand, because the hand of the carver had followed +his loving heart. Neither was there gold wanting to the altar +and its canopy; and above the low pillars of the nave hung banners, +taken from the foe by the men of that house, gallant with gold and jewels.</p> +<p>She walked up to the altar and took the blessed book of the Gospels +from the left side of it, then knelt in prayer for a moment or two, +<!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>while +the three men stood behind her reverently. When she rose she made +a sign to them, and from their scabbards gleamed three swords in the +moonlight; then, while they held them aloft, and pointed toward the +altar, she opened the book at the page whereon was painted Christ the +Lord dying on the cross, pale against the gleaming gold: she said, in +a firm voice, ‘Christ God, who diedst for all men, so help me, +as I refuse not life, happiness, even honour, for this people whom I +love.’</p> +<p>Then she kissed the face so pale against the gold, and knelt again.</p> +<p>But when she had risen, and before she could leave the space by the +altar, Siur had stepped up to her, and seized her hurriedly, folding +both his arms about her; she let herself be held there, her bosom against +his; then he held her away from him a little space, holding her by the +arms near the shoulder; then he took her hands and laid them across +his shoulders, so that now she held him.</p> +<p>And they said nothing; what could they say? Do you know any +word for what they meant?</p> +<p>And the father and brother stood by, looking quite awe-struck, more +so they seemed than by her solemn oath. Till Siur, raising his +head from where it lay, cried out aloud:</p> +<p><!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>‘May +God forgive me as I am true to her! hear you, father and brother?’</p> +<p>Then said Cissela: ‘May God help me in my need, as I am true +to Siur.’</p> +<p>And the others went, and they two were left standing there alone, +with no little awe over them, strange and shy as they had never yet +been to each other. Cissela shuddered, and said in a quick whisper: +‘Siur, on your knees! and pray that these oaths may never clash.’</p> +<p>‘Can they, Cissela?’ he said.</p> +<p>‘O love,’ she cried, ‘you have loosed my hand; +take it again, or I shall die, Siur!’</p> +<p>He took both her hands, he held them fast to his lips, to his forehead; +he said: ‘No, God does not allow such things: truth does not lie; +you are truth; this need not be prayed for.’</p> +<p>She said: ‘Oh, forgive me! yet—yet this old chapel is +damp and cold even in the burning summer weather. O knight Siur, +something strikes through me; I pray you kneel and pray.’</p> +<p>He looked steadily at her for a long time without answering, as if +he were trying once for all to become indeed one with her; then said: +‘Yes, it is possible; in no other way could you give up everything.’</p> +<p>Then he took from off his finger a thin golden <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>ring, +and broke it in two, and gave her the one half, saying: ‘When +will they come together?’</p> +<p>Then within a while they left the chapel, and walked as in a dream +between the dazzling lights of the hall, where the knights sat now, +and between those lights sat down together, dreaming still the same +dream each of them; while all the knights shouted for Siur and Cissela. +Even if a man had spent all his life looking for sorrowful things, even +if he sought for them with all his heart and soul, and even though he +had grown grey in that quest, yet would he have found nothing in all +the world, or perhaps in all the stars either, so sorrowful as Cissela.</p> +<p>They had accepted her sacrifice after long deliberation, they had +arrayed her in purple and scarlet, they had crowned her with gold wrought +about with jewels, they had spread abroad the veil of her golden hair; +yet now, as they led her forth in the midst of the band of knights, +her brother Eric holding fast her hand, each man felt like a murderer +when he beheld her face, whereon was no tear, wherein was no writhing +of muscle, twitching of nerve, wherein was no sorrow-mark of her own, +but only the sorrow-mark which God sent her, and which she <i>must</i> +perforce wear.</p> +<p>Yet they had not caught eagerly at her offer, <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>they +had said at first almost to a man: ‘Nay, this thing shall not +be, let us die altogether rather than this.’ Yet as they +sat, and said this, to each man of the council came floating dim memories +of that curse of the burned women, and its remedy; to many it ran rhythmically, +an old song better known by the music than the words, heard once and +again, long ago, when the gusty wind overmastered the chesnut-boughs +and strewed the smooth sward with their star-leaves.</p> +<p>Withal came thoughts to each man, partly selfish, partly wise and +just, concerning his own wife and children, concerning children yet +unborn; thoughts too of the glory of the old name; all that had been +suffered and done that the glorious free land might yet be a nation.</p> +<p>And the spirit of hope, never dead but sleeping only, woke up within +their hearts: ‘We may yet be a people,’ they said to themselves, +‘if we can but get breathing time.’</p> +<p>And as they thought these things, and doubted, Siur rose up in the +midst of them and said: ‘You are right in what you think, countrymen, +and she is right; she is altogether good and noble; send her forth.’</p> +<p>Then, with one look of utter despair at her as she stood statue-like, +he left the council, lest <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>he +should fall down and die in the midst of them, he said; yet he died +not then, but lived for many years afterwards.</p> +<p>But they rose from their seats, and when they were armed, and she +royally arrayed, they went with her, leading her through the dear streets, +whence you always saw the great pine-shadowed mountains; she went away +from all that was dear to her, to go and sit a crowned queen in the +dreary marble palace, whose outer walls rose right up from the weary-hearted +sea. She could not think, she durst not; she feared, if she did, +that she would curse her beauty, almost curse the name of love, curse +Siur, though she knew he was right, for not slaying her; she feared +that she might curse God.</p> +<p>So she thought not at all, steeping her senses utterly in forgetfulness +of the happy past, destroying all anticipation of the future: yet, as +they left the city amid the tears of women, and fixed sorrowful gaze +of men, she turned round once, and stretched her arms out involuntarily, +like a dumb senseless thing, towards the place where she was born, and +where her life grew happier day by day, and where his arms first crept +round about her.</p> +<p>She turned away and thought, but in a cold speculative manner, how +it was possible that <!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>she +was bearing this sorrow; as she often before had wondered, when slight +things vexed her overmuch, how people had such sorrows and lived, and +almost doubted if the pain was so much greater in great sorrows than +in small troubles, or whether the nobleness only was greater, the pain +not sharper, but more lingering.</p> +<p>Halfway toward the camp the king’s people met her; and over +the trampled ground, where they had fought so fiercely but a little +time before, they spread breadth of golden cloth, that her feet might +not touch the arms of her dead countrymen, or their brave bodies.</p> +<p>And so they came at last with many trumpet-blasts to the king’s +tent, who stood at the door of it, to welcome his bride that was to +be: a noble man truly to look on, kindly, and genial-eyed; the red blood +sprang up over his face when she came near; and she looked back no more, +but bowed before him almost to the ground, and would have knelt, but +that he caught her in his arms and kissed her; she was pale no more +now; and the king, as he gazed delightedly at her, did not notice that +sorrow-mark, which was plain enough to her own people.</p> +<p>So the trumpets sounded again one long peal that seemed to make all +the air reel and quiver, <!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>and +the soldiers and lords shouted: ‘Hurrah for the Peace-Queen, Cissela.’</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>‘Come, Harald,’ said a beautiful golden-haired boy to +one who was plainly his younger brother, ‘Come, and let us leave +Robert here by the forge, and show our lady-mother this beautiful thing. +Sweet master armourer, farewell.’</p> +<p>‘Are you going to the queen then?’ said the armourer.</p> +<p>‘Yea,’ said the boy, looking wonderingly at the strong +craftsman’s eager face.</p> +<p>‘But, nay; let me look at you awhile longer, you remind me +so much of one I loved long ago in my own land. Stay awhile till +your other brother goes with you.’</p> +<p>‘Well, I will stay, and think of what you have been telling +me; I do not feel as it I should ever think of anything else for long +together, as long as I live.’</p> +<p>So he sat down again on an old battered anvil, and seemed with his +bright eyes to be beholding something in the land of dreams. A +gallant dream it was he dreamed; for he saw himself with his brothers +and friends about him, seated on a throne, the justest king in all the +earth, his people the lovingest of all people: <!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>he +saw the ambassadors of the restored nation, that had been unjustly dealt +with long ago; everywhere love, and peace if possible, justice and truth +at all events.</p> +<p>Alas! he knew not that vengeance, so long delayed, must fall at last +in his life-time; he knew not that it takes longer to restore that whose +growth has been through age and age, than the few years of a life-time; +yet was the reality good, if not as good as the dream.</p> +<p>Presently his twin-brother Robert woke him from that dream, calling +out: ‘Now, brother Svend, are we really ready; see here! but stop, +kneel first; there, now am I the Bishop.’</p> +<p>And he pulled his brother down on to his knees, and put on his head, +where it fitted loosely enough now, hanging down from left to right, +an iron crown fantastically wrought, which he himself, having just finished +it, had taken out of the water, cool and dripping.</p> +<p>Robert and Harald laughed loud when they saw the crown hanging all +askew, and the great drops rolling from it into Svend’s eyes and +down his cheeks, looking like tears: not so Svend; he rose, holding +the crown level on his head, holding it back, so that it pressed against +his brow hard, and, first dashing the drops to right and left, caught +his brother by the hand, and said:</p> +<p><!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>‘May +I keep it, Robert? I shall wear it some day.’</p> +<p>‘Yea,’ said the other; ‘but it is a poor thing; +better let Siur put it in the furnace again and make it into sword hilts.’</p> +<p>Thereupon they began to go, Svend holding the crown in his hand: +but as they were going, Siur called out: ‘Yet will I sell my dagger +at a price, Prince Svend, even as you wished at first, rather than give +it you for nothing.’</p> +<p>‘Well, for what?’ said Svend, somewhat shortly, for he +thought Siur was going back from his promise, which was ugly to him.</p> +<p>‘Nay, be not angry, prince,’ said the armourer, ‘only +I pray you to satisfy this whim of mine; it is the first favour I have +asked of you: will you ask the fair, noble lady, your mother, from Siur +the smith, if she is happy now?’</p> +<p>‘Willingly, sweet master Siur, if it pleases you; farewell.’</p> +<p>And with happy young faces they went away; and when they were gone, +Siur from a secret place drew out various weapons and armour, and began +to work at them, having first drawn bolt and bar of his workshop carefully.</p> +<p>Svend, with Harald and Robert his two brethren, went their ways to +the queen, and found her sitting alone in a fair court of the <!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>palace +full of flowers, with a marble cloister round about it; and when she +saw them coming, she rose up to meet them, her three fair sons.</p> +<p>Truly as that right royal woman bent over them lovingly, there seemed +little need of Siur’s question.</p> +<p>So Svend showed her his dagger, but not the crown; and she asked +many questions concerning Siur the smith, about his way of talking and +his face, the colour of his hair even, till the boys wondered, she questioned +them so closely, with beaming eyes and glowing cheeks, so that Svend +thought he had never before seen his mother look so beautiful.</p> +<p>Then Svend said: ‘And, mother, don’t be angry with Siur, +will you? because he sent a message to you by me.’</p> +<p>‘Angry!’ and straightway her soul was wandering where +her body could not come, and for a moment or two she was living as before, +with him close by her, in the old mountain land.</p> +<p>‘Well, mother, he wanted me to ask you if you were happy now.’</p> +<p>‘Did he, Svend, this man with brown hair, grizzled as you say +it is now? Is his hair soft then, this Siur, going down on to +his shoulders in waves? and his eyes, do they glow steadily, as if lighted +up from his heart? and how does <!-- page 119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>he +speak? Did you not tell me that his words led you, whether you +would or no, into dreamland? Ah well! tell him I am happy, but +not so happy as we shall be, as we were. And so you, son Robert, +are getting to be quite a cunning smith; but do you think you will ever +beat Siur?’</p> +<p>‘Ah, mother, no,’ he said, ‘there is something +with him that makes him seem quite infinitely beyond all other workmen +I ever heard of.’</p> +<p>Some memory coming from that dreamland smote upon her heart more +than the others; she blushed like a young girl, and said hesitatingly:</p> +<p>‘Does he work with his left hand, son Robert; for I have heard +that some men do so?’ But in her heart she remembered how +once, long ago in the old mountain country, in her father’s house, +some one had said that only men who were born so, could do cunningly +with the left hand; and how Siur, then quite a boy, had said, ‘Well, +I will try’: and how, in a month or two, he had come to her with +an armlet of silver, very curiously wrought, which he had done with +his own left hand.</p> +<p>So Robert said: ‘Yea, mother, he works with his left hand almost +as much as with his right, <!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>and +sometimes I have seen him change the hammer suddenly from his right +hand to his left, with a kind of half smile, as one who would say, ‘Cannot +I then?’ and this more when he does smith’s work in metal +than when he works in marble; and once I heard him say when he did so, +‘I wonder where my first left hand work is; ah! I bide my +time.’ I wonder also, mother, what he meant by that.’</p> +<p>She answered no word, but shook her arm free from its broad sleeve, +and something glittered on it, near her wrist, something wrought out +of silver set with quaint and uncouthly-cut stones of little value.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>In the council-chamber, among the lords, sat Svend with his six brethren; +he chief of all in the wielding of sword or axe, in the government of +people, in drawing the love of men and women to him; perfect in face +and body, in wisdom and strength was Svend: next to him sat Robert, +cunning in working of marble, or wood, or brass; all things could he +make to look as if they lived, from the sweep of an angel’s wings +down to the slipping of a little field-mouse from under the sheaves +in the harvest-time. Then there was Harald, who knew concerning +all the stars of heaven and flowers <!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>of +earth: Richard, who drew men’s hearts from their bodies, with +the words that swung to and fro in his glorious rhymes: William, to +whom the air of heaven seemed a servant when the harp-strings quivered +underneath his fingers: there were the two sailor-brothers, who the +year before, young though they were, had come back from a long, perilous +voyage, with news of an island they had found long and long away to +the west, larger than any that this people knew of, but very fair and +good, though uninhabited.</p> +<p>But now over all this noble brotherhood, with its various gifts hung +one cloud of sorrow; their mother, the Peace-Queen Cissela was dead, +she who had taught them truth and nobleness so well; she was never to +see the beginning of the end that they would work; truly it seemed sad.</p> +<p>There sat the seven brothers in the council chamber, waiting for +the king, speaking no word, only thinking drearily; and under the pavement +of the great church Cissela lay, and by the side of her tomb stood two +men, old men both, Valdemar the king, and Siur.</p> +<p>So the king, after that he had gazed awhile on the carven face of +her he had loved well, said at last:</p> +<p><!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>‘And +now, Sir Carver, must you carve me also to lie there.’ And +he pointed to the vacant space by the side of the fair alabaster figure.</p> +<p>‘O king,’ said Siur, ‘except for a very few strokes +on steel, I have done work now, having carved the queen there; I cannot +do this thing for you.’</p> +<p>What was it sent a sharp pang of bitterest suspicion through the +very heart of the poor old man? he looked steadfastly at him for a moment +or two, as if he would know all secrets; he could not, he had not strength +of life enough to get to the bottom of things; doubt vanished soon from +his heart and his face under Siur’s pitying gaze; he said, ‘Then +perhaps I shall be my own statue,’ and therewithal he sat down +on the edge of the low marble tomb, and laid his right arm across her +breast; he fixed his eyes on the eastern belt of windows, and sat quite +motionless and silent; and he never knew that she loved him not.</p> +<p>But Siur, when he had gazed at him for awhile, stole away quietly, +as we do when we fear to waken a sleeper; and the king never turned +his head, but still sat there, never moving, scarce breathing, it seemed.</p> +<p>Siur stood in his own great hall (for his house was large), he stood +before the dais, <!-- page 123--><a name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>and +saw a fair sight, the work of his own hands.</p> +<p>For, fronting him, against the wall were seven thrones, and behind +them a cloth of samite of purple wrought with golden stars, and barred +across from right to left with long bars of silver and crimson, and +edged below with melancholy, fading green, like a September sunset; +and opposite each throne was a glittering suit of armour wrought wonderfully +in bright steel, except that on the breast of each suit was a face worked +marvellously in enamel, the face of Cissela in a glory of golden hair; +and the glory of that gold spread away from the breast on all sides, +and ran cunningly along with the steel rings, in such a way as it is +hard even to imagine: moreover, on the crest of each helm was wrought +the phoenix, the never-dying bird, the only creature that knows the +sun; and by each suit lay a gleaming sword terrible to look at, steel +from pommel to point, but wrought along the blade in burnished gold +that outflashed the gleam of the steel, was written in fantastic letters +the word ‘Westward.’</p> +<p>So Siur gazed till he heard footsteps coming; then he turned to meet +them. And Svend and his brethren sat silent in the council chamber, +till they heard a great noise and clamour of the <!-- page 124--><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>people +arise through all the streets; and then they rose to see what it might +be. Meanwhile on the low marble tomb, under the dim sweeping vault +sat, or rather lay, the king; for, though his right arm still lay over +her breast, his head had fallen forward, and rested now on the shoulder +of the marble queen. There he lay, with strange confusion of his +scarlet, gold-wrought robes; silent, motionless, and dead. The +seven brethren stood together on a marble terrace of the royal palace, +that was dotted about on the baluster of it with white statues: they +were helmetted, and armed to the teeth, only over their armour great +black cloaks were thrown.</p> +<p>Now the whole great terrace was a-sway with the crowd of nobles and +princes, and others that were neither nobles or princes, but true men +only; and these were helmetted and wrapped in black cloaks even as the +princes were, only the crests of the princes’ helms were wrought +wonderfully with that bird, the phoenix, all flaming with new power, +dying because its old body is not strong enough for its new-found power: +and those on that terrace who were unarmed had anxious faces, some fearful, +some stormy with Devil’s rage at disappointment; but among the +faces of those <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>helmed +ones, though here and there you might see a pale face, there was no +fear or rage, scarcely even any anxiety, but calm, brave joy seemed +to be on all.</p> +<p>Above the heads of all men on that terrace shone out Svend’s +brave face, the golden hair flowing from out of his helmet: a smile +of quiet confidence overflowing from his mighty heart, in the depths +of which it was dwelling, just showed a very little on his eyes and +lips.</p> +<p>While all the vast square, and all the windows and roofs even of +the houses over against the palace, were alive with an innumerable sea +of troubled raging faces, showing white, upturned from the under-sea +of their many-coloured raiment; the murmur from them was like the sough +of the first tempest-wind among the pines, and the gleam of spears here +and there like the last few gleams of the sun through the woods when +the black thunder-clouds come up over all, soon to be shone through, +those woods, by the gleam of the deep lightning.</p> +<p>Also sometimes the murmur would swell, and from the heart of it would +come a fierce, hoarse, tearing, shattering roar, strangely discordant, +of ‘War! War! give us war, O king!’</p> +<p>Then Svend stepping forward, his arms hidden under his long cloak +as they hung down <!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>quietly, +the smile on his face broadening somewhat, sent from his chest a mighty, +effortless voice over all the raging:</p> +<p>‘Hear, O ye people! War with all that is ugly and base; +peace with all that is fair and good.—NO WAR with my brother’s +people.’</p> +<p>Just then one of those unhelmetted, creeping round about stealthily +to the place where Svend stood, lifted his arm and smote at him with +a dagger; whereupon Svend clearing his right arm from his cloak with +his left, lifted up his glittering right hand, and the traitor fell +to the earth groaning with a broken jaw, for Svend had smitten him on +the mouth a backward blow with his open hand.</p> +<p>One shouted from the crowd, ‘Ay, murderer Svend, slay our good +nobles, as you poisoned the king your father, that you and your false +brethren might oppress us with the memory of that Devil’s witch, +your mother!’</p> +<p>The smile left Svend’s face and heart now, he looked very stern +as he said:</p> +<p>‘Hear, O ye people! In years past when I was a boy my +dream of dreams was ever this, how I should make you good, and because +good, happy, when I should become king over you; but as year by year +passed I saw my dream flitting; the deep colours of it changed, faded, +<!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>grew +grey in the light of coming manhood; nevertheless, God be my witness, +that I have ever striven to make you just and true, hoping against hope +continually; and I had even determined to bear everything and stay with +you, even though you should remain unjust and liars, for the sake of +the few who really love me; but now, seeing that God has made you mad, +and that his vengeance will speedily fall, take heed how you cast out +from you all that is good and true-hearted! Once more—which +choose you—Peace or War?’</p> +<p>Between the good and the base, in the midst of the passionate faces +and changing colours stood the great terrace, cold, and calm, and white, +with its changeless statues; and for a while there was silence.</p> +<p>Broken through at last by a yell, and the sharp whirr of arrows, +and the cling, clang, from the armour of the terrace as Prince Harald +staggered through unhurt, struck by the broad point on the helmet.</p> +<p>‘What, War?’ shouted Svend wrathfully, and his voice +sounded like a clap of thunder following the lightning flash when a +tower is struck. ‘What! war? swords for Svend! round about +the king, good men and true! Sons of the golden-haired, show these +men WAR.’</p> +<p><!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>As +he spoke he let his black cloak fall, and up from their sheaths sprang +seven swords, steel from pommel to point only; on the blades of them +in fantastic letters of gold, shone the word WESTWARD.</p> +<p>Then all the terrace gleamed with steel, and amid the hurtling of +stones and whizz of arrows they began to go westward.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>The streets ran with blood, the air was filled with groans and curses, +the low waves nearest the granite pier were edged with blood, because +they first caught the drippings of the blood.</p> +<p>Then those of the people who durst stay on the pier saw the ships +of Svend’s little fleet leaving one by one; for he had taken aboard +those ten ships whosoever had prayed to go, even at the last moment, +wounded, or dying even; better so, for in their last moments came thoughts +of good things to many of them, and it was good to be among the true.</p> +<p>But those haughty ones left behind, sullen and untamed, but with +a horrible indefinable dread on them that was worse than death, or mere +pain, howsoever fierce—these saw all the ships go out of the harbour +merrily with swelling sail and dashing oar, and with joyous singing +of those aboard; and Svend’s was the last of all.</p> +<p><!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>Whom +they saw kneel down on the deck unhelmed, then all sheathed their swords +that were about him; and the Prince Robert took from Svend’s hand +an iron crown fantastically wrought, and placed it on his head as he +knelt; then he continued kneeling still, till, as the ship drew further +and further away from the harbour, all things aboard of her became indistinct.</p> +<p>And they never saw Svend and his brethren again.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>Here ends what William the Englishman wrote; but afterwards (in the +night-time) he found the book of a certain chronicler which saith:</p> +<p>‘In the spring-time, in May, the 550<i>th</i> year from the +death of Svend the wonderful king, the good knights, sailing due eastward, +came to a harbour of a land they knew not: wherein they saw many goodly +ships, but of a strange fashion like the ships of the ancients, and +destitute of any mariners: besides they saw no beacons for the guidance +of seamen, nor was there any sound of bells or singing, though the city +was vast, with many goodly towers and palaces. So when they landed +they found that which is hardly to be believed but which is nevertheless +true: for about the quays and about the streets <!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>lay +many people dead, or stood, but quite without motion, and they were +all white or about the colour of new-hewn freestone, yet were they not +statues but real men, for they had, some of them, ghastly wounds which +showed their entrails, and the structure of their flesh, and veins, +and bones.</p> +<p>‘Moreover the streets were red and wet with blood, and the +harbour waves were red with it, because it dipped in great drops slowly +from the quays.</p> +<p>‘Then when the good knights saw this, they doubted not but +that it was a fearful punishment on this people for sins of theirs; +thereupon they entered into a church of that city and prayed God to +pardon them; afterwards, going back to their ships, sailed away marvelling.</p> +<p>‘And I John who wrote this history saw all this with mine own +eyes.’</p> +<h2><!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>THE +CHURCHES OF NORTH FRANCE</h2> +<h3>I—SHADOWS OF AMIENS</h3> +<p>Not long ago I saw for the first time some of the churches of North +France; still more recently I saw them for the second time; and, remembering +the love I have for them and the longing that was in me to see them, +during the time that came between the first and second visit, I thought +I should like to tell people of some of those things I felt when I was +there;—there among those mighty tombs of the long-dead ages.</p> +<p>And I thought that even if I could say nothing else about these grand +churches, I could at least tell men how much I loved them; so that though +they might laugh at me for my foolish and confused words, they might +yet be moved to see what there was that made me speak my love, though +I could give no reason for it.</p> +<p>For I will say here that I think those same churches of North France +the grandest, the most beautiful, the kindest and most loving of all +the buildings that the earth has ever borne; and, thinking of their +past-away builders, can I see through them, very faintly, dimly, some +little of the mediæval times, else dead, and gone from me for +ever—voiceless for ever.</p> +<p><!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>And +those same builders, still surely living, still real men, and capable +of receiving love, I love no less than the great men, poets and painters +and such like, who are on earth now, no less than my breathing friends +whom I can see looking kindly on me now. Ah! do I not love them +with just cause, who certainly loved me, thinking of me sometimes between +the strokes of their chisels; and for this love of all men that they +had, and moreover for the great love of God, which they certainly had +too; for this, and for this work of theirs, the upraising of the great +cathedral front with its beating heart of the thoughts of men, wrought +into the leaves and flowers of the fair earth; wrought into the faces +of good men and true, fighters against the wrong, of angels who upheld +them, of God who rules all things; wrought through the lapse of years, +and years, and years, by the dint of chisel, and stroke of hammer, into +stories of life and death, the second life, the second death, stories +of God’s dealing in love and wrath with the nations of the earth, +stories of the faith and love of man that dies not: for their love, +and the deeds through which it worked, I think they will not lose their +reward.</p> +<p>So I will say what I can of their works, and I have to speak of Amiens +first, and <!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>how +it seemed to me in the hot August weather.</p> +<p>I know how wonderful it would look, if you were to mount one of the +steeples of the town, or were even to mount up to the roof of one of +the houses westward of the cathedral; for it rises up from the ground, +grey from the paving of the street, the cavernous porches of the west +front opening wide, and marvellous with the shadows of the carving you +can only guess at; and above stand the kings, and above that you would +see the twined mystery of the great flamboyant rose window with its +thousand openings, and the shadows of the flower-work carved round it, +then the grey towers and gable, grey against the blue of the August +sky, and behind them all, rising high into the quivering air, the tall +spire over the crossing.</p> +<p>But from the hot Place Royale here with its stunted pollard acacias, +and statue of some one, I know not whom, but some citizen of Amiens +I suppose, you can see nothing but the graceful spire; it is of wood +covered over with lead, and was built quite at the end of the flamboyant +times. Once it was gilt all over, and used to shine out there, +getting duller and duller, as the bad years grew worse and worse; but +the gold is all gone now; when it finally disappeared I <!-- page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>know +not, but perhaps it was in 1771, when the chapter got them the inside +of their cathedral whitewashed from vaulting to pavement.</p> +<p>The spire has two octagonal stages above the roof, formed of trefoiled +arches, and slim buttresses capped by leaded figures; from these stages +the sloping spire springs with crocketted ribs at the angles, the lead +being arranged in a quaint herring-bone pattern; at the base of the +spire too is a crown of open-work and figures, making a third stage; +finally, near the top of the spire the crockets swell, till you come +to the rose that holds the great spire-cross of metal-work, such metal-work +as the French alone knew how to make; it is all beautiful, though so +late.</p> +<p>From one of the streets leading out of the Place Royale you can see +the cathedral, and as you come nearer you see that it is clear enough +of houses or such like things; the great apse rises over you, with its +belt of eastern chapels; first the long slim windows of these chapels, +which are each of them little apses, the Lady Chapel projecting a good +way beyond the rest, and then, running under the cornice of the chapels +and outer aisles all round the church, a cornice of great noble leaves; +then the parapets in changing flamboyant patterns, then the conical +roofs of the chapels hiding the exterior tracery <!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>of +the triforium, then the great clerestory windows, very long, of four +lights, and stilted, the tracery beginning a long way below the springing +of their arches; and the buttresses are so thick, and their arms spread +so here, that each of the clerestory windows looks down its own space +between them, as if between walls: above the windows rise their canopies +running through the parapet, and above all the great mountainous roof, +and all below it, and around the windows and walls of the choir and +apse, stand the mighty army of the buttresses, holding up the weight +of the stone roof within with their strong arms for ever.</p> +<p>We go round under their shadows, past the sacristies, past the southern +transept, only glancing just now at the sculpture there, past the chapels +of the nave, and enter the church by the small door hard by the west +front, with that figure of huge St. Christopher quite close over our +heads; thereby we enter the church, as I said, and are in its western +bay. I think I felt inclined to shout when I first entered Amiens +cathedral; it is so free and vast and noble, I did not feel in the least +awe-struck, or humbled by its size and grandeur. I have not often +felt thus when looking on architecture, but have felt, at all events, +at first, intense exultation at the <!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>beauty +of it; that, and a certain kind of satisfaction in looking on the geometrical +tracery of the windows, on the sweeping of the huge arches, were, I +think, my first feelings in Amiens Cathedral.</p> +<p>We go down the nave, glancing the while at the traceried windows +of the chapels, which are later than the windows above them; we come +to the transepts, and from either side the stained glass, in their huge +windows, burns out on us; and, then, first we begin to appreciate somewhat +the scale of the church, by looking up, along the ropes hanging from +the vaulting to the pavement, for the tolling of the bells in the spire.</p> +<p>There is a hideous renaissance screen, of solid stone or marble, +between choir and nave, with more hideous iron gates to it, through +which, however, we, walking up the choir steps, can look and see the +gorgeous carving of the canopied stalls; and then, alas! ‘the +concentration of flattened sacks, rising forty feet above the altar;’ +but, above that, the belt of the apse windows, rich with sweet mellowed +stained glass, under the dome-like roof.</p> +<p>The stalls in the choir are very rich, as people know, carved in +wood, in the early sixteenth century, with high twisted canopies, and +histories, <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>from +the Old Testament mostly, wrought about them. The history of Joseph +I remember best among these. Some of the scenes in it I thought +very delightful; the story told in such a gloriously quaint, straightforward +manner. Pharaoh’s dream, how splendid that was! the king +lying asleep on his elbow, and the kine coming up to him in two companies. +I think the lean kine was about the best bit of wood-carving I have +seen yet. There they were, a writhing heap, crushing and crowding +one another, drooping heads and starting eyes, and strange angular bodies; +altogether the most wonderful symbol of famine ever conceived. +I never fairly understood Pharaoh’s dream till I saw the stalls +at Amiens.</p> +<p>There is nothing else to see in the choir; all the rest of the fittings +being as bad as possible. So we will go out again, and walk round +the choir-aisles. The screen round the choir is solid, the upper +part of it carved (in the flamboyant times), with the history of St. +John the Baptist, on the north side; with that of St. Firmin on the +south. I remember very little of the sculptures relative to St. +John, but I know that I did not like them much. Those about St. +Firmin, who evangelised Picardy, I remember much better, and some of +them especially I <!-- page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>thought +very beautiful; they are painted too, and at any rate one cannot help +looking at them.</p> +<p>I do not remember, in the least, the order in which they come, but +some of them are fixed well enough in my memory; and, principally, a +bishop, (St. Firmin), preaching, rising out of a pulpit from the midst +of the crowd, in his jewelled cope and mitre, and with a beautiful sweet +face. Then another, the baptising of the king and his lords, was +very quaint and lifelike. I remember, too, something about the +finding of St. Firmin’s relics, and the translation of the same +relics when found; the many bishops, with their earnest faces, in the +first, and the priests, bearing the reliquaries, in the second; with +their long vestments girded at the waist and falling over their feet, +painted too, in light colours, with golden flowers on them. I +wish I remembered these carvings better, I liked them so much. +Just about this place, in the lower part of the screen, I remember the +tomb of a priest, very gorgeous, with gold and colours; he lay in a +deep niche, under a broad segmental arch, which is painted with angels; +and, outside this niche, angels were drawing back painted curtains, +I am sorry to say. But the priest lay there in cope and alb, and +the gentle colour lay over him, as his calm face gazed ever at the angels +<!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>painted +in his resting place. I have dim recollection of seeing, when +I was at Amiens before, not this last time, a tomb, which I liked much, +a bishop, I think it was, lying under a small round arch, but I forget +the figure now. This was in a chapel on the other side of the +choir. It is very hard to describe the interior of a great church +like this, especially since the whitewash (applied, as I said, on this +scale in 1771) lies on everything so; before that time, some book says, +the church was painted from end to end with patterns of flowers and +stars, and histories: think—I might have been able to say something +about it then, with that solemn glow of colour all about me, as I walked +there from sunrise to sunset; and yet, perhaps, it would have filled +my heart too full for speaking, all that beauty; I know not.</p> +<p>Up into the triforium, and other galleries, sometimes in the church, +sometimes in narrow passages of close-fitting stone, sometimes out in +the open air; up into the forest of beams between the slates and the +real stone roof: one can look down through a hole in the vaulting and +see the people walking and praying on the pavement below, looking very +small from that height, and strangely foreshortened. A strange +sense of oppression came over me at that time, when, as <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>we +were in one of the galleries of the west front, we looked into the church, +and found the vaulting but a foot or two (or it seemed so) above our +heads; also, while I was in the galleries, now out of the church, now +in it, the canons had begun to sing complines, and the sound of their +singing floated dimly up the winding stair-cases and half-shut doors.</p> +<p>The sun was setting when we were in the roof, and a beam of it, striking +through the small window up in the gable, fell in blood-red spots on +the beams of the great dim roof. We came out from the roof on +to the parapet in the blaze of the sun, and then going to the crossing, +mounted as high as we could into the spire, and stood there a while +looking down on the beautiful country, with its many water-meadows, +and feathering trees.</p> +<p>And here let me say something about the way in which I have taken +this description upon me; for I did not write it at Amiens; moreover, +if I had described it from the bare reminiscences of the church, I should +have been able to say little enough about the most interesting part +of all, the sculptures, namely; so, though remembering well enough the +general effect of the whole, and, very distinctly, statues and faces, +nay, leaves and flower-knots, here and there; <!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>yet, +the external sculpture I am describing as well as I can from such photographs +as I have; and these, as everybody knows, though very distinct and faithful, +when they show anything at all, yet, in some places, where the shadows +are deep, show simply nothing. They tell me, too, nothing whatever +of the colour of the building; in fact, their brown and yellow is as +unlike as possible to the grey of Amiens. So, for the facts of +form, I have to look at my photographs; for facts of colour I have to +try and remember the day or two I spent at Amiens, and the reference +to the former has considerably dulled my memory of the latter. +I have something else to say, too; it will seem considerably ridiculous, +no doubt, to many people who are well acquainted with the iconography +of the French churches, when I talk about the stories of some of the +carvings; both from my want of knowledge as to their meaning, and also +from my telling people things which everybody may be supposed to know; +for which I pray forgiveness, and so go on to speak of the carvings +about the south transept door.</p> +<p>It is divided in the midst by a pillar, whereon stands the Virgin, +holding our Lord. She is crowned, and has a smile upon her face +now for ever; and in the canopy above her head are <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>three +angels, bearing up the aureole there; and about these angels, and the +aureole and head of the Virgin, there is still some gold and vermilion +left. The Holy Child, held in His mother’s left arm, is +draped from His throat to His feet, and between His hands He holds the +orb of the world. About on a level with the Virgin, along the +sides of the doorway, are four figures on each side, the innermost one +on either side being an angel holding a censer; the others are ecclesiastics, +and (some book says) benefactors to the church. They have solemn +faces, stern, with firm close-set lips, and eyes deep-set under their +brows, almost frowning, and all but one or two are beardless, though +evidently not young; the square door valves are carved with deep-twined +leaf-mouldings, and the capitals of the door-shafts are carved with +varying knots of leaves and flowers. Above the Virgin, up in the +tympanum of the doorway, are carved the Twelve Apostles, divided into +two bands of six, by the canopy over the Virgin’s head. +They are standing in groups of two, but I do not know for certain which +they are, except, I think, two, St. James and St. John; the two first +in the eastern division. James has the pilgrim’s hat and +staff, and John is the only beardless one among them; his face is rather +sad, and exceedingly <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>lovely, +as, indeed are all those faces, being somewhat alike; and all, in some +degree like the type of face received as the likeness of Christ himself. +They have all long hair falling in rippled bands on each side of their +faces, on to their shoulders. Their drapery, too, is lovely; they +are very beautiful and solemn. Above their heads runs a cornice +of trefoiled arches, one arch over the head of each apostle; from out +of the deep shade of the trefoils flashes a grand leaf cornice, one +leaf again to each apostle; and so we come to the next compartment, +which contains three scenes from the life of St. Honoré, an early +French bishop. The first scene is, I think, the election of a +bishop, the monks or priests talking the matter over in chapter first, +then going to tell the bishop-elect. Gloriously-draped figures +the monks are, with genial faces full of good wisdom, drawn into quaint +expressions by the joy of argument. This one old, and has seen +much of the world; he is trying, I think, to get his objections answered +by the young man there, who is talking to him so earnestly; he is listening, +with a half-smile on his face, as if he had made up his mind, after +all. These other two, one very energetic indeed, with his head +and shoulders swung back a little, and his right arm forward, and the +other listening <!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>to +him, and but half-convinced yet. Then the two next, turning to +go with him who is bearing to the new-chosen bishop the book of the +Gospels and pastoral staff; they look satisfied and happy. Then +comes he with the pastoral staff and Gospels; then, finally, the man +who is announcing the news to the bishop himself, the most beautiful +figure in the whole scene, perhaps, in the whole doorway; he is stooping +down, lovingly, to the man they have chosen, with his left hand laid +on his arm, and his long robe falls to his feet from his shoulder all +along his left side, moulded a little to the shape of his body, but +falling heavily and with scarce a fold in it, to the ground: the chosen +one sitting there, with his book held between his two hands, looks up +to him with his brave face, and he will be bishop, and rule well, I +think. So, by the next scene he is bishop, I suppose, and is sitting +there ordering the building of a church; for he is sitting under a trefoiled +canopy, with his mitre on his head, his right hand on a reading-desk +by his side. His book is lying open, his head turned toward what +is going forwards. It is a splendid head and face. In the +photograph I have of this subject, the mitre, short and simple, is in +full light but for a little touch of shade on one side; the face is +shaded, but the <!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>crown +of short crisp curls hanging over it, about half in light, half in shade. +Beyond the trefoil canopy comes a wood of quaint conventional trees, +full of stone, with a man working at it with a long pick: I cannot see +his face, as it is altogether in shade, the light falling on his head +however. He is dressed in a long robe, quite down to his feet, +not a very convenient dress, one would think, for working in. +I like the trees here very much; they are meant for hawthorns and oaks. +There are a very few leaves on each tree, but at the top they are all +twisted about, and are thicker, as if the wind were blowing them. +The little capitals of the canopy, under which the bishop is sitting, +are very delightful, and are common enough in larger work of this time +(thirteenth century) in France. Four bunches of leaves spring +from long stiff stalks, and support the square abacus, one under each +corner. The next scene, in the division above, is some miracle +or other, which took place at mass, it seems. The bishop is saying +mass before an altar; behind him are four assistants; and, as the bishop +stands there with his hand raised, a hand coming from somewhere by the +altar, holds down towards him the consecrated wafer. The thing +is gloriously carved, whatever it is. The assistant immediately +behind <!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>the +bishop, holding in his hands a candle-stick, somewhat slantwise towards +the altar, is, especially in the drapery, one of the most beautiful +in the upper part of this tympanum; his head is a little bent, and the +line made from the back of it over the heavy hair, down along the heavy-swinging +robe, is very beautiful.</p> +<p>The next scene is the shrine of some Saint. This same bishop, +I suppose, dead now, after all his building and ruling, and hard fighting, +possibly, with the powers that be; often to be fought with righteously +in those times. Over the shrine sits the effigy of the bishop, +with his hand raised to bless. On the western side are two worshippers; +on the eastern, a blind and a deaf man are being healed, by the touch +of the dead bishop’s robe. The deaf man is leaning forward, +and the servant of the shrine holds to his ear the bishop’s robe. +The deaf man has a very deaf face, not very anxious though; not even +showing very much hope, but faithful only. The blind one is coming +up behind him with a crutch in his right hand, and led by a dog; the +face was either in its first estate, very ugly and crabbed, or by the +action of the weather or some such thing, has been changed so.</p> +<p>So the bishop being dead and miracles being wrought at his tomb, +in the division above comes <!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>the +translation of his remains; a long procession taking up the whole of +the division, which is shorter than the others, however, being higher +up towards the top of the arch. An acolyte bearing a cross, heads +the procession, then two choristers; then priests bearing relics and +books; long vestments they have, and stoles crossed underneath their +girdles; then comes the reliquary borne by one at each end, the two +finest figures in this division, the first especially; his head raised +and his body leaning forward to the weight of the reliquary, as people +nearly always do walk when they carry burdens and are going slowly; +which this procession certainly is doing, for some of the figures are +even turning round. Three men are kneeling or bending down beneath +the shrine as it passes; cripples, they are, all three have beautiful +faces, the one who is apparently the worst cripple of the three, (his +legs and feet are horribly twisted), has especially a wonderfully delicate +face, timid and shrinking, though faithful: behind the shrine come the +people, walking slowly together with reverent faces; a woman with a +little child holding her hand are the last figures in this history of +St. Honoré: they both have their faces turned full south, the +woman has not a beautiful face, but a happy good-natured genial one.</p> +<p><!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>The +cornice below this division is of plain round-headed trefoils very wide, +and the spandrel of each arch is pierced with a small round trefoil, +very sharply cut, looking, in fact, as if it were cut with a punch: +this cornice, simple though it is, I think, very beautiful, and in my +photograph the broad trefoils of it throw sharp black shadows on the +stone behind the worshipping figures, and square-cut altars.</p> +<p>In the triangular space at the top of the arch is a representation +of our Lord on the cross; St. Mary and St. John standing on either side +of him, and, kneeling on one knee under the sloping sides of the arch, +two angels, one on each side. I very much wish I could say something +more about this piece of carving than I can do, because it seems to +me that the French thirteenth century sculptors failed less in their +representations of the crucifixion than almost any set of artists; though +it was certainly an easier thing to do in stone than on canvas, especially +in such a case as this where the representation is so highly abstract; +nevertheless, I wish I could say something more about it; failing which, +I will say something about my photograph of it.</p> +<p>I cannot see the Virgin’s face at all, it is in the shade so +much; St. John’s I cannot see very well; I do not think it is +a remarkable face, <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>though +there is sweet expression in it; our Lord’s face is very grand +and solemn, as fine as I remember seeing it anywhere in sculpture. +The shadow of the body hanging on the cross there, falls strangely and +weirdly on the stone behind—both the kneeling angels (who, by +the way, are holding censers), are beautiful. Did I say above +that one of the faces of the twelve Apostles was the most beautiful +in the tympanum? if I did, I retract that saying, certainly, looking +on the westernmost of these two angels. I keep using the word +beautiful so often that I feel half inclined to apologise for it; but +I cannot help it, though it is often quite inadequate to express the +loveliness of some of the figures carved here; and so it happens surely +with the face of this angel. The face is not of a man, I should +think; it is rather like a very fair woman’s face; but fairer +than any woman’s face I ever saw or thought of: it is in profile +and easy to be seen in the photograph, though somewhat in the shade. +I am utterly at a loss how to describe it, or to give any idea of the +exquisite lines of the cheek and the rippled hair sweeping back from +it, just faintly touched by the light from the south-east. I cannot +say more about it. So I have gone through the carvings in the +lower part of this doorway, and those of the tympanum. <!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>Now, +besides these, all the arching-over of the door is filled with figures +under canopies, about which I can say little, partly from want of adequate +photographs, partly from ignorance of their import.</p> +<p>But the first of the cavettos wherein these figures are, is at any +rate filled with figures of angels, some swinging censers, some bearing +crowns, and other things which I cannot distinguish. Most of the +niches in the next cavetto seem to hold subjects; but the square camera +of the photographer clips some, many others are in shadow, in fact the +niches throw heavy shadows over the faces of nearly all; and without +the photograph I remember nothing but much fretted grey stone above +the line of the capitals of the doorway shafts; grey stone with something +carved in it, and the swallows flying in and out of it. Yet now +there are three niches I can say something about at all events. +A stately figure with a king’s crown on his head, and hair falling +in three waves over his shoulders, a very kingly face looking straight +onward; a great jewelled collar falling heavily to his elbows: his right +hand holding a heavy sceptre formed of many budding flowers, and his +left just touching in front the folds of his raiment that falls heavily, +very heavily to the ground over his feet. Saul, <!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>King +of Israel.—A bending figure with covered head, pouring, with his +right hand, oil on the head of a youth, not a child plainly, but dwarfed +to a young child’s stature before the bending of the solemn figure +with the covered head. Samuel anointing David.—A king again, +with face hidden in deep shade, holding a naked sword in his right hand, +and a living infant in the other; and two women before him, one with +a mocking smile on her face, the other with her head turned up in passionate +entreaty, grown women they are plainly, but dwarfed to the stature of +young girls before the hidden face of the King. The judgment of +Solomon.—An old man with drawn sword in right hand, with left +hand on a fair youth dwarfed, though no child, to the stature of a child; +the old man’s head is turned somewhat towards the presence of +an angel behind him, who points downward to something unseen. +Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.—Noah too, working diligently +that the ark may be finished before the flood comes.—Adam tilling +the ground, and clothed in the skins of beasts.—There is Jacob’s +stolen blessing, that was yet in some sort to be a blessing though it +was stolen.—There is old Jacob whose pilgrimage is just finished +now, after all his doings and sufferings, all those deceits inflicted +upon him, <!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>that +made him remember, perforce, the lie he said and acted long ago,—old +Jacob blessing the sons of Joseph. And many more which I remember +not, know not, mingled too with other things which I dimly see have +to do with the daily occupations of the men who lived in the dim, far-off +thirteenth century.</p> +<p>I remember as I came out by the north door of the west front, how +tremendous the porches seemed to me, which impression of greatness and +solemnity, the photographs, square-cut and brown-coloured do not keep +at all; still however I can recall whenever I please the wonder I felt +before that great triple porch; I remember best in this way the porch +into which I first entered, namely the northernmost, probably because +I saw most of it, coming in and out often by it, yet perhaps the fact +that I have seen no photograph of this doorway somewhat assists the +impression.</p> +<p>Yet I do not remember even of this anything more than the fact that +the tympanum represented the life and death of some early French bishop; +it seemed very interesting. I remember, too, that in the door-jambs +were standing figures of bishops in two long rows, their mitred heads +bowed forward solemnly, and I remember nothing further.</p> +<p><!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>Concerning +the southernmost porch of the west front.—The doorway of this +porch also has on the centre pillar of it a statue of the Virgin standing, +holding the Divine Child in her arms. Both the faces of the Virgin +Mother and of her Son, are very beautiful; I like them much better than +those in the south transept already spoken of; indeed I think them the +grandest of all the faces of the Madonna and Child that I have seen +carved by the French architects. I have seen many, the faces of +which I do not like, though the drapery is always beautiful; their faces +I do not like at all events, as faces of the Virgin and Child, though +as faces of other people even if not beautiful they would be interesting. +The Child is, as in the transept, draped down to the feet; draped too, +how exquisitely I know not how to say. His right arm and hand +is stretched out across His mother’s breast, His left hangs down +so that His wrist as His hand is a little curved upwards, rests upon +His knee; His mother holds Him slightly with her left arm, with her +right she holds a fold of her robe on which His feet rest. His +figure is not by any means that of an infant, for it is slim and slender, +too slender for even a young boy, yet too soft, too much rounded for +a youth, and <!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>the +head also is too large; I suppose some people would object to this way +of carving One who is supposed to be an infant; yet I have no doubt +that the old sculptors were right in doing so, and to my help in this +matter comes the remembrance of Ruskin’s answer to what Lord Lindsay +says concerning the inability of Giotto and his school to paint young +children: for he says that it might very well happen that Giotto could +paint children, but yet did not choose to in this instance, (the Presentation +of the Virgin), for the sake of the much greater dignity to be obtained +by using the more fully developed figure and face; <a name="citation156"></a><a href="#footnote156">{156}</a> +and surely, whatever could be said about Giotto’s paintings, no +one who was at all acquainted with Early French sculpture could doubt +that the carvers of this figure here, <i>could</i> have carved an infant +if they had thought fit so to do, men who again and again grasped eagerly +common everyday things when in any way they would tell their story. +To return to the statues themselves. The face of <!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>the +young Christ is of the same character as His figure, such a face as +Elizabeth Browning tells of, the face of One ‘who never sinned +or smiled’; at least if the sculptor fell below his ideal somewhat, +yet for all that, through that face which he failed in a little, we +can see when we look, that his ideal was such an one. The Virgin’s +face is calm and very sweet, full of rest,—indeed the two figures +are very full of rest; everything about them expresses it from the broad +forehead of the Virgin, to the resting of the feet of the Child (who +is almost self-balanced) in the fold of the robe that she holds gently, +to the falling of the quiet lines of her robe over her feet, to the +resting of its folds between them.</p> +<p>The square heads of the door-valves, and a flat moulding above them +which runs up also into the first division of the tympanum, is covered +with faintly cut diaper-work of four-leaved flowers.</p> +<p>Along the jambs of the doorway on the north side stand six kings, +all bearded men but one, who is young apparently; I do not know who +these are, but think they must be French kings; one, the farthest toward +the outside of the porch, has taken his crown off, and holds it in his +hand: the figures on the other side of the <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>door-jambs +are invisible in the photograph except one, the nearest to the door, +young, sad, and earnest to look at—I know not who he is. +Five figures outside the porch, and on the angles of the door-jambs, +are I suppose prophets, perhaps those who have prophesied of the birth +of our Lord, as this door is apportioned to the Virgin.</p> +<p>The first division of the tympanum has six sitting figures in it; +on each side of the canopy over the Virgin’s head, Moses and Aaron; +Moses with the tables of the law, and Aaron with great blossomed staff: +with them again, two on either side, sit the four greater prophets, +their heads veiled, and a scroll lying along between them, over their +knees; old they look, very old, old and passionate and fierce, sitting +there for so long.</p> +<p>The next division has in it the death and burial of the Virgin,—the +twelve Apostles clustering round the deathbed of the Virgin. I +wish my photograph were on a larger scale, for this indeed seems to +me one of the most beautiful pieces of carving about this church, those +earnest faces expressing so many things mingled with their regret that +she will be no more with them; and she, the Virgin-Mother, in whom all +those prophecies were fulfilled, <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>lying +so quiet there, with her hands crossed downwards, dead at last. +Ah! and where will she go now? whose face will she see always? +Oh! that we might be there too! Oh! those faces so full of all +tender regret, which even They must feel for Her; full of all yearning, +and longing that they too might finish the long fight, that they might +be with the happy dead: there is a wonder on their faces too, when they +see what the mighty power of Death is. The foremost is bending +down, with his left hand laid upon her breast, and he is gazing there +so long, so very long; one looking there too, over his shoulder, rests +his hand on him; there is one at the head, one at the foot of the bed; +and he at the head is turning round his head, that he may see her face, +while he holds in his hands the long vestment on which her head rests.</p> +<p>In my photograph the shadow is so thick that I cannot see much of +the burial of the Virgin, can see scarce anything of the faces, only +just the forms, of the Virgin lying quiet and still there, of the bending +angels, and their great wings that shadow everything there.</p> +<p>So also of the third and last division filling the top of the arch. +I only know that it represents the Virgin sitting glorified with Christ, +crowned by angels, and with angels all about her.</p> +<p><!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>The +first row in the vaulting of the porch I has angels in it, holding censers +and candlesticks; the next has in it the kings who sprung from Jesse, +with a flowing bough twisted all among them; the third and last is hidden +by a projecting moulding.</p> +<p>All the three porches of the west front have a fringe of cusps ending +in flowers, hanging to their outermost arch, and above this a band of +flower-work, consisting of a rose and three rose-leaves alternating +with each other.</p> +<p>Concerning the central porch of the west front.—The pillar +which divides the valves of the central porch carries a statue of Our +Lord; his right hand raised to bless, his left hand holding the Book; +along the jambs of the porch are the Apostles, but not the Apostles +alone, I should think; those that are in the side that I can see have +their distinctive emblems with them, some of them at least. Their +faces vary very much here, as also their figures and dress; the one +I like best among them is one who I think is meant for St. James the +Less, with a long club in his hands; but they are all grand faces, stern +and indignant, for they have come to judgment.</p> +<p>For there above in the tympanum, in the midst over the head of Christ, +stand three angels, <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>and +the midmost of them bears scales in his hands, wherein are the souls +being weighed against the accusations of the Accuser, and on either +side of him stands another angel, blowing a long trumpet, held downwards, +and their long, long raiment, tight across the breast, falls down over +their feet, heavy, vast, ungirt; and at the corners of this same division +stand two other angels, and they also are blowing long trumpets held +downwards, so that their blast goes round the world and through it; +and the dead are rising between the robes of the angels with their hands +many of them lifted to heaven; and above them and below them are deep +bands of wrought flowers; and in the vaulting of the porch are eight +bands of niches with many, many figures carved therein; and in the first +row in the lowest niche Abraham stands with the saved souls in the folds +of his raiment. In the next row and in the rest of the niches +are angels with their hands folded in prayer; and in the next row angels +again, bearing the souls over, of which they had charge in life; and +this is, I think, the most gloriously carved of all those in the vaulting. +Then martyrs come bearing their palm-boughs; then priests with the chalice, +each of them; and others there are which I know not of. But above +the resurrection from the dead, <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>in +the tympanum, is the reward of the good, and the punishment of the bad. +Peter standing there at the gate, and the long line of the blessed entering +one by one; each one crowned as he enters by an angel waiting there; +and above their heads a cornice takes the shape of many angels stooping +down to them to crown them. But on the inferno side the devil +drives before him the wicked, all naked, presses them on toward hell-mouth, +that gapes for them, and above their heads the devil-cornice hangs and +weighs on them. And above these the Judge showing the wounds that +were made for the salvation of the world; and St. Mary and St. John +kneeling on either side of Him, they who stood so once at the Crucifixion; +two angels carrying cross and spear and nails; two others kneeling, +and, above, other angels, with their wings spread, and singing. +Something like this is carved in the central porch at Amiens.</p> +<p>Once more forgive me, I pray, for the poor way in which I have done +even that which I have attempted to do; and forgive me also for that +which I have left undone.</p> +<p>And now, farewell to the church that I love, to the carved temple-mountain +that rises so high above the water-meadows of the Somme, above the grey +roofs of the good town. Farewell <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>to +the sweep of the arches, up from the bronze bishops lying at the west +end, up to the belt of solemn windows, where, through the painted glass, +the light comes solemnly. Farewell to the cavernous porches of +the west front, so grey under the fading August sun, grey with the wind-storms, +grey with the rain-storms, grey with the beat of many days’ sun, +from sunrise to sunset; showing white sometimes, too, when the sun strikes +it strongly; snowy-white, sometimes, when the moon is on it, and the +shadows growing blacker; but grey now, fretted into black by the mitres +of the bishops, by the solemn covered heads of the prophets, by the +company of the risen, and the long robes of the judgment-angels, by +hell-mouth and its flames gaping there, and the devils that feed it; +by the saved souls and the crowning angels; by the presence of the Judge, +and by the roses growing above them all for ever.</p> +<p>Farewell to the spire, gilt all over with gold once, and shining +out there, very gloriously; dull and grey now, alas; but still it catches, +through its interlacement of arches, the intensest blue of the blue +summer sky; and, sometimes at night you may see the stars shining through +it.</p> +<p>It is fair still, though the gold is gone, <!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span> +the spire that seems to rock, when across it, in the wild February nights, +the clouds go westward.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote21"></a><a href="#citation21">{21}</a> See +Thorpe’s <i>Northern Mythology</i>, vol. ii, p. 214.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156"></a><a href="#citation156">{156}</a> +In the explanatory remarks accompanying the engravings from Giotto’s +frescoes in the Arena Chapel, published by the Arundel Society. +I regret not being able to give the reference to the passage, not having +the work by me.</p> +<p><i>Printed at</i> <span class="smcap">The Avon Press</span>, <i>London</i></p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD OF ROMANCE***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 17973-h.htm or 17973-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/7/17973 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The World of Romance + being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856 + + +Author: William Morris + + + +Release Date: March 12, 2006 [eBook #17973] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD OF ROMANCE*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1906 J. Thomson edition by David Price, +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +THE WORLD OF ROMANCE + + +_BEING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE_ OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE MAGAZINE, 1856 + +_By_ WILLIAM MORRIS + +LONDON: _Published by_ J. THOMSON _at_ 10, +CRAVEN GARDENS, WIMBLEDON, S. W. +MCMVI + +_In the tales . . . the world is one of pure romance. Mediaeval customs, +mediaeval buildings, the mediaeval Catholic religion, the general social +framework of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, are assumed +throughout, but it would be idle to attempt to place them in any known +age or country. . . Their author in later years thought, or seemed to +think, lightly of them, calling them crude (as they are) and very young +(as they are). But they are nevertheless comparable in quality to +Keats's 'Endymion' as rich in imagination, as irregularly gorgeous in +language, as full in every vein and fibre of the sweet juices and ferment +of the spring_.--J. W. MACKAIL + +In his last year at Oxford, Morris established, assuming the entire +financial responsibility, the 'Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,' written +almost entirely by himself and his college friends, but also numbering +Rossetti among its contributors. Like most college ventures, its career +was short, ending with its twelfth issue in December, 1856. In this +magazine Morris first found his strength as a writer, and though his +subsequent literary achievements made him indifferent to this earlier +work, its virility and wealth of romantic imagination justify its rescue +from oblivion. + +The article on Amiens, intended originally as the first of a series, is +included in this volume as an illustration of Morris's power to clothe +things actual with the glamour of Romance. + + + + +THE STORY OF THE UNKNOWN CHURCH + + +I was the master-mason of a church that was built more than six hundred +years ago; it is now two hundred years since that church vanished from +the face of the earth; it was destroyed utterly,--no fragment of it was +left; not even the great pillars that bore up the tower at the cross, +where the choir used to join the nave. No one knows now even where it +stood, only in this very autumn-tide, if you knew the place, you would +see the heaps made by the earth-covered ruins heaving the yellow corn +into glorious waves, so that the place where my church used to be is as +beautiful now as when it stood in all its splendour. I do not remember +very much about the land where my church was; I have quite forgotten the +name of it, but I know it was very beautiful, and even now, while I am +thinking of it, comes a flood of old memories, and I almost seem to see +it again,--that old beautiful land! only dimly do I see it in spring and +summer and winter, but I see it in autumn-tide clearly now; yes, clearer, +clearer, oh! so bright and glorious! yet it was beautiful too in spring, +when the brown earth began to grow green: beautiful in summer, when the +blue sky looked so much bluer, if you could hem a piece of it in between +the new white carving; beautiful in the solemn starry nights, so solemn +that it almost reached agony--the awe and joy one had in their great +beauty. But of all these beautiful times, I remember the whole only of +autumn-tide; the others come in bits to me; I can think only of parts of +them, but all of autumn; and of all days and nights in autumn, I remember +one more particularly. That autumn day the church was nearly finished +and the monks, for whom we were building the church, and the people, who +lived in the town hard by, crowded round us oftentimes to watch us +carving. + +Now the great Church, and the buildings of the Abbey where the monks +lived, were about three miles from the town, and the town stood on a hill +overlooking the rich autumn country: it was girt about with great walls +that had overhanging battlements, and towers at certain places all along +the walls, and often we could see from the churchyard or the Abbey +garden, the flash of helmets and spears, and the dim shadowy waving of +banners, as the knights and lords and men-at-arms passed to and fro along +the battlements; and we could see too in the town the three spires of the +three churches; and the spire of the Cathedral, which was the tallest of +the three, was gilt all over with gold, and always at night-time a great +lamp shone from it that hung in the spire midway between the roof of the +church and the cross at the top of the spire. The Abbey where we built +the Church was not girt by stone walls, but by a circle of poplar trees, +and whenever a wind passed over them, were it ever so little a breath, it +set them all a-ripple; and when the wind was high, they bowed and swayed +very low, and the wind, as it lifted the leaves, and showed their silvery +white sides, or as again in the lulls of it, it let them drop, kept on +changing the trees from green to white, and white to green; moreover, +through the boughs and trunks of the poplars, we caught glimpses of the +great golden corn sea, waving, waving, waving for leagues and leagues; +and among the corn grew burning scarlet poppies, and blue corn-flowers; +and the corn-flowers were so blue, that they gleamed, and seemed to burn +with a steady light, as they grew beside the poppies among the gold of +the wheat. Through the corn sea ran a blue river, and always green +meadows and lines of tall poplars followed its windings. The old Church +had been burned, and that was the reason why the monks caused me to build +the new one; the buildings of the Abbey were built at the same time as +the burned-down Church, more than a hundred years before I was born, and +they were on the north side of the Church, and joined to it by a cloister +of round arches, and in the midst of the cloister was a lawn, and in the +midst of that lawn, a fountain of marble, carved round about with flowers +and strange beasts, and at the edge of the lawn, near the round arches, +were a great many sun-flowers that were all in blossom on that autumn +day, and up many of the pillars of the cloister crept passion-flowers and +roses. Then farther from the Church, and past the cloister and its +buildings, were many detached buildings, and a great garden round them, +all within the circle of the poplar trees; in the garden were trellises +covered over with roses, and convolvolus, and the great-leaved fiery +nasturium; and specially all along by the poplar trees were there +trellises, but on these grew nothing but deep crimson roses; the +hollyhocks too were all out in blossom at that time, great spires of +pink, and orange, and red, and white, with their soft, downy leaves. I +said that nothing grew on the trellises by the poplars but crimson roses, +but I was not quite right, for in many places the wild flowers had crept +into the garden from without; lush green briony, with green-white +blossoms, that grows so fast, one could almost think that we see it grow, +and deadly nightshade, La bella donna, O! so beautiful; red berry, and +purple, yellow-spiked flower, and deadly, cruel-looking, dark green leaf, +all growing together in the glorious days of early autumn. And in the +midst of the great garden was a conduit, with its sides carved with +histories from the Bible, and there was on it too, as on the fountain in +the cloister, much carving of flowers and strange beasts. Now the Church +itself was surrounded on every side but the north by the cemetery, and +there were many graves there, both of monks and of laymen, and often the +friends of those, whose bodies lay there, had planted flowers about the +graves of those they loved. I remember one such particularly, for at the +head of it was a cross of carved wood, and at the foot of it, facing the +cross, three tall sun-flowers; then in the midst of the cemetery was a +cross of stone, carved on one side with the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and on the other with our Lady holding the Divine Child. So that +day, that I specially remember, in autumn-tide, when the Church was +nearly finished, I was carving in the central porch of the west front; +(for I carved all those bas-reliefs in the west front with my own hand;) +beneath me my sister Margaret was carving at the flower-work, and the +little quatrefoils that carry the signs of the zodiac and emblems of the +months: now my sister Margaret was rather more than twenty years old at +that time, and she was very beautiful, with dark brown hair and deep calm +violet eyes. I had lived with her all my life, lived with her almost +alone latterly, for our father and mother died when she was quite young, +and I loved her very much, though I was not thinking of her just then, as +she stood beneath me carving. Now the central porch was carved with a +bas-relief of the Last Judgment, and it was divided into three parts by +horizontal bands of deep flower-work. In the lowest division, just over +the doors, was carved The Rising of the Dead; above were angels blowing +long trumpets, and Michael the Archangel weighing the souls, and the +blessed led into heaven by angels, and the lost into hell by the devil; +and in the topmost division was the Judge of the world. + +All the figures in the porch were finished except one, and I remember +when I woke that morning my exultation at the thought of my Church being +so nearly finished; I remember, too, how a kind of misgiving mingled with +the exultation, which, try all I could, I was unable to shake off; I +thought then it was a rebuke for my pride, well, perhaps it was. The +figure I had to carve was Abraham, sitting with a blossoming tree on each +side of him, holding in his two hands the corners of his great robe, so +that it made a mighty fold, wherein, with their hands crossed over their +breasts, were the souls of the faithful, of whom he was called Father: I +stood on the scaffolding for some time, while Margaret's chisel worked on +bravely down below. I took mine in my hand, and stood so, listening to +the noise of the masons inside, and two monks of the Abbey came and stood +below me, and a knight, holding his little daughter by the hand, who +every now and then looked up at him, and asked him strange questions. I +did not think of these long, but began to think of Abraham, yet I could +not think of him sitting there, quiet and solemn, while the +Judgment-Trumpet was being blown; I rather thought of him as he looked +when he chased those kings so far; riding far ahead of any of his +company, with his mail-hood off his head, and lying in grim folds down +his back, with the strong west wind blowing his wild black hair far out +behind him, with the wind rippling the long scarlet pennon of his lance; +riding there amid the rocks and the sands alone; with the last gleam of +the armour of the beaten kings disappearing behind the winding of the +pass; with his company a long, long way behind, quite out of sight, +though their trumpets sounded faintly among the clefts of the rocks; and +so I thought I saw him, till in his fierce chase he lept, horse and man, +into a deep river, quiet, swift, and smooth; and there was something in +the moving of the water-lilies as the breast of the horse swept them +aside, that suddenly took away the thought of Abraham and brought a +strange dream of lands I had never seen; and the first was of a place +where I was quite alone, standing by the side of a river, and there was +the sound of singing a very long way off, but no living thing of any kind +could be seen, and the land was quite flat, quite without hills, and +quite without trees too, and the river wound very much, making all kinds +of quaint curves, and on the side where I stood there grew nothing but +long grass, but on the other side grew, quite on to the horizon, a great +sea of red corn-poppies, only paths of white lilies wound all among them, +with here and there a great golden sun-flower. So I looked down at the +river by my feet, and saw how blue it was, and how, as the stream went +swiftly by, it swayed to and fro the long green weeds, and I stood and +looked at the river for long, till at last I felt some one touch me on +the shoulder, and, looking round, I saw standing by me my friend Amyot, +whom I love better than any one else in the world, but I thought in my +dream that I was frightened when I saw him, for his face had changed so, +it was so bright and almost transparent, and his eyes gleamed and shone +as I had never seen them do before. Oh! he was so wondrously beautiful, +so fearfully beautiful! and as I looked at him the distant music swelled, +and seemed to come close up to me, and then swept by us, and fainted +away, at last died off entirely; and then I felt sick at heart, and +faint, and parched, and I stooped to drink of the water of the river, and +as soon as the water touched my lips, lo! the river vanished, and the +flat country with its poppies and lilies, and I dreamed that I was in a +boat by myself again, floating in an almost land-locked bay of the +northern sea, under a cliff of dark basalt. I was lying on my back in +the boat, looking up at the intensely blue sky, and a long low swell from +the outer sea lifted the boat up and let it fall again and carried it +gradually nearer and nearer towards the dark cliff; and as I moved on, I +saw at last, on the top of the cliff, a castle, with many towers, and on +the highest tower of the castle there was a great white banner floating, +with a red chevron on it, and three golden stars on the chevron; +presently I saw too on one of the towers, growing in a cranny of the worn +stones, a great bunch of golden and blood-red wall-flowers, and I watched +the wall-flowers and banner for long; when suddenly I heard a trumpet +blow from the castle, and saw a rush of armed men on to the battlements, +and there was a fierce fight, till at last it was ended, and one went to +the banner and pulled it down, and cast it over the cliff in to the sea, +and it came down in long sweeps, with the wind making little ripples in +it;--slowly, slowly it came, till at last it fell over me and covered me +from my feet till over my breast, and I let it stay there and looked +again at the castle, and then I saw that there was an amber-coloured +banner floating over the castle in place of the red chevron, and it was +much larger than the other: also now, a man stood on the battlements, +looking towards me; he had a tilting helmet on, with the visor down, and +an amber-coloured surcoat over his armour: his right hand was +ungauntletted, and he held it high above his head, and in his hand was +the bunch of wallflowers that I had seen growing on the wall; and his +hand was white and small like a woman's, for in my dream I could see even +very far-off things much clearer than we see real material things on the +earth: presently he threw the wallflowers over the cliff, and they fell +in the boat just behind my head, and then I saw, looking down from the +battlements of the castle, Amyot. He looked down towards me very +sorrowfully, I thought, but, even as in the other dream, said nothing; so +I thought in my dream that I wept for very pity, and for love of him, for +he looked as a man just risen from a long illness, and who will carry +till he dies a dull pain about with him. He was very thin, and his long +black hair drooped all about his face, as he leaned over the battlements +looking at me: he was quite pale, and his cheeks were hollow, but his +eyes large, and soft, and sad. So I reached out my arms to him, and +suddenly I was walking with him in a lovely garden, and we said nothing, +for the music which I had heard at first was sounding close to us now, +and there were many birds in the boughs of the trees: oh, such birds! +gold and ruby, and emerald, but they sung not at all, but were quite +silent, as though they too were listening to the music. Now all this +time Amyot and I had been looking at each other, but just then I turned +my head away from him, and as soon as I did so, the music ended with a +long wail, and when I turned again Amyot was gone; then I felt even more +sad and sick at heart than I had before when I was by the river, and I +leaned against a tree, and put my hands before my eyes. When I looked +again the garden was gone, and I knew not where I was, and presently all +my dreams were gone. The chips were flying bravely from the stone under +my chisel at last, and all my thoughts now were in my carving, when I +heard my name, "Walter," called, and when I looked down I saw one +standing below me, whom I had seen in my dreams just before--Amyot. I +had no hopes of seeing him for a long time, perhaps I might never see him +again, I thought, for he was away (as I thought) fighting in the holy +wars, and it made me almost beside myself to see him standing close by me +in the flesh. I got down from my scaffolding as soon as I could, and all +thoughts else were soon drowned in the joy of having him by me; Margaret, +too, how glad she must have been, for she had been betrothed to him for +some time before he went to the wars, and he had been five years away; +five years! and how we had thought of him through those many weary days! +how often his face had come before me! his brave, honest face, the most +beautiful among all the faces of men and women I have ever seen. Yes, I +remember how five years ago I held his hand as we came together out of +the cathedral of that great, far-off city, whose name I forget now; and +then I remember the stamping of the horses' feet; I remember how his hand +left mine at last, and then, some one looking back at me earnestly as +they all rode on together--looking back, with his hand on the saddle +behind him, while the trumpets sang in long solemn peals as they all rode +on together, with the glimmer of arms and the fluttering of banners, and +the clinking of the rings of the mail, that sounded like the falling of +many drops of water into the deep, still waters of some pool that the +rocks nearly meet over; and the gleam and flash of the swords, and the +glimmer of the lance-heads and the flutter of the rippled banners that +streamed out from them, swept past me, and were gone, and they seemed +like a pageant in a dream, whose meaning we know not; and those sounds +too, the trumpets, and the clink of the mail, and the thunder of the +horse-hoofs, they seemed dream-like too--and it was all like a dream that +he should leave me, for we had said that we should always be together; +but he went away, and now he is come back again. + +We were by his bed-side, Margaret and I; I stood and leaned over him, and +my hair fell sideways over my face and touched his face; Margaret kneeled +beside me, quivering in every limb, not with pain, I think, but rather +shaken by a passion of earnest prayer. After some time (I know not how +long), I looked up from his face to the window underneath which he lay; I +do not know what time of the day it was, but I know that it was a +glorious autumn day, a day soft with melting, golden haze: a vine and a +rose grew together, and trailed half across the window, so that I could +not see much of the beautiful blue sky, and nothing of town or country +beyond; the vine leaves were touched with red here and there, and three +over-blown roses, light pink roses, hung amongst them. I remember +dwelling on the strange lines the autumn had made in red on one of the +gold-green vine leaves, and watching one leaf of one of the over-blown +roses, expecting it to fall every minute; but as I gazed, and felt +disappointed that the rose leaf had not fallen yet, I felt my pain +suddenly shoot through me, and I remembered what I had lost; and then +came bitter, bitter dreams,--dreams which had once made me happy,--dreams +of the things I had hoped would be, of the things that would never be +now; they came between the fair vine leaves and rose blossoms, and that +which lay before the window; they came as before, perfect in colour and +form, sweet sounds and shapes. But now in every one was something +unutterably miserable; they would not go away, they put out the steady +glow of the golden haze, the sweet light of the sun through the vine +leaves, the soft leaning of the full blown roses. I wandered in them for +a long time; at last I felt a hand put me aside gently, for I was +standing at the head of--of the bed; then some one kissed my forehead, +and words were spoken--I know not what words. The bitter dreams left me +for the bitterer reality at last; for I had found him that morning lying +dead, only the morning after I had seen him when he had come back from +his long absence--I had found him lying dead, with his hands crossed +downwards, with his eyes closed, as though the angels had done that for +him; and now when I looked at him he still lay there, and Margaret knelt +by him with her face touching his: she was not quivering now, her lips +moved not at all as they had done just before; and so, suddenly those +words came to my mind which she had spoken when she kissed me, and which +at the time I had only heard with my outward hearing, for she had said, +"Walter, farewell, and Christ keep you; but for me, I must be with him, +for so I promised him last night that I would never leave him any more, +and God will let me go." And verily Margaret and Amyot did go, and left +me very lonely and sad. + +It was just beneath the westernmost arch of the nave, there I carved +their tomb: I was a long time carving it; I did not think I should be so +long at first, and I said, "I shall die when I have finished carving it," +thinking that would be a very short time. But so it happened after I had +carved those two whom I loved, lying with clasped hands like husband and +wife above their tomb, that I could not yet leave carving it; and so that +I might be near them I became a monk, and used to sit in the choir and +sing, thinking of the time when we should all be together again. And as +I had time I used to go to the westernmost arch of the nave and work at +the tomb that was there under the great, sweeping arch; and in process of +time I raised a marble canopy that reached quite up to the top of the +arch, and I painted it too as fair as I could, and carved it all about +with many flowers and histories, and in them I carved the faces of those +I had known on earth (for I was not as one on earth now, but seemed quite +away out of the world). And as I carved, sometimes the monks and other +people too would come and gaze, and watch how the flowers grew; and +sometimes too as they gazed, they would weep for pity, knowing how all +had been. So my life passed, and I lived in that Abbey for twenty years +after he died, till one morning, quite early, when they came into the +church for matins, they found me lying dead, with my chisel in my hand, +underneath the last lily of the tomb. + + + + +LINDENBORG POOL. {21} + + +I read once in lazy humour Thorpe's _Northern Mythology_ on a cold May +night when the north wind was blowing; in lazy humour, but when I came to +the tale that is here amplified there was something in it that fixed my +attention and made me think of it; and whether I would or no, my thoughts +ran in this way, as here follows. + +So I felt obliged to write, and wrote accordingly, and by the time I had +done the grey light filled all my room; so I put out my candles, and went +to bed, not without fear and trembling, for the morning twilight is so +strange and lonely. This is what I wrote. + +* * * * * + +Yes, on that dark night, with that wild unsteady north wind howling, +though it was May time, it was doubtless dismal enough in the forest, +where the boughs clashed eerily, and where, as the wanderer in that place +hurried along, strange forms half showed themselves to him, the more +fearful because half seen in that way: dismal enough doubtless on wide +moors where the great wind had it all its own way: dismal on the rivers +creeping on and on between the marsh-lands, creeping through the willows, +the water trickling through the locks, sounding faintly in the gusts of +the wind. + +Yet surely nowhere so dismal as by the side of that still pool. + +I threw myself down on the ground there, utterly exhausted with my +struggle against the wind, and with bearing the fathoms and fathoms of +the heavily-leaded plumb-line that lay beside me. + +Fierce as the rain was, it could not raise the leaden waters of that +fearful pool, defended as they were by the steep banks of dripping yellow +clay, striped horribly here and there with ghastly uncertain green and +blue. + +They said no man could fathom it; and yet all round the edges of it grew +a rank crop of dreary reeds and segs, some round, some flat, but none +ever flowering as other things flowered, never dying and being renewed, +but always the same stiff array of unbroken reeds and segs, some round, +some flat. Hard by me were two trees leafless and ugly, made, it seemed, +only for the wind to go through with a wild sough on such nights as +these; and for a mile from that place were no other trees. + +True, I could not see all this at that time, then, in the dark night, but +I knew well that it was all there; for much had I studied this pool in +the day-time, trying to learn the secret of it; many hours I had spent +there, happy with a kind of happiness, because forgetful of the past. And +even now, could I not hear the wind going through those trees, as it +never went through any trees before or since? could I not see gleams of +the dismal moor? could I not hear those reeds just taken by the wind, +knocking against each other, the flat ones scraping all along the round +ones? Could I not hear, moreover, the slow trickling of the land-springs +through the clay banks? + +The cold, chill horror of the place was too much for me; I had never been +there by night before, nobody had for quite a long time, and now to come +on such a night! If there had been any moon, the place would have looked +more as it did by day; besides, the moon shining on water is always so +beautiful, on any water even: if it had been starlight, one could have +looked at the stars and thought of the time when those fields were +fertile and beautiful (for such a time was, I am sure), when the cowslips +grew among the grass, and when there was promise of yellow-waving corn +stained with poppies; that time which the stars had seen, but which we +had never seen, which even they would never see again--past time! + +Ah! what was that which touched my shoulder?--Yes, I see, only a dead +leaf.--Yes, to be here on this eighth of May too of all nights in the +year, the night of that awful day when ten years ago I slew him, not +undeservedly, God knows, yet how dreadful it was!--Another leaf! and +another!--Strange, those trees have been dead this hundred years, I +should think. How sharp the wind is too, just as if I were moving along +and meeting it;--why, I _am_ moving! what then, I am not there after all; +where am I then? there are the trees; no, they are freshly-planted oak +saplings, the very ones that those withered last-year's leaves were blown +on me from. + +I have been dreaming then, and am on my road to the lake: but what a +young wood! I must have lost my way; I never saw all this before. Well--I +will walk on stoutly. + +May the Lord help my senses! I am _riding_!--on a mule; a bell tinkles +somewhere on him; the wind blows something about with a flapping sound: +something? in heaven's name, what? _My_ long black robes.--Why--when I +left my house I was clad in serviceable broadcloth of the nineteenth +century. + +I shall go mad--I am mad--I am gone to the devil--I have lost my +identity; who knows in what place, in what age of the world I am living +now? Yet I will be calm; I have seen all these things before, in +pictures surely, or something like them. I am resigned, since it is no +worse than that. I am a priest then, in the dim, far-off thirteenth +century, riding, about midnight I should say, to carry the blessed +Sacrament to some dying man. + +Soon I found that I was not alone; a man was riding close to me on a +horse; he was fantastically dressed, more so than usual for that time, +being striped all over in vertical stripes of yellow and green, with +quaint birds like exaggerated storks in different attitudes +counter-changed on the stripes; all this I saw by the lantern he carried, +in the light of which his debauched black eyes quite flashed. On he +went, unsteadily rolling, very drunk, though it was the thirteenth +century, but being plainly used to that, he sat his horse fairly well. + +I watched him in my proper nineteenth-century character, with insatiable +curiosity and intense amusement; but as a quiet priest of a long-past +age, with contempt and disgust enough, not unmixed with fear and anxiety. + +He roared out snatches of doggrel verse as he went along, drinking songs, +hunting songs, robbing songs, lust songs, in a voice that sounded far and +far above the roaring of the wind, though that was high, and rolled along +the dark road that his lantern cast spikes of light along ever so far, +making the devils grin: and meanwhile I, the priest, glanced from him +wrathfully every now and then to That which I carried very reverently in +my hand, and my blood curdled with shame and indignation; but being a +shrewd priest, I knew well enough that a sermon would be utterly thrown +away on a man who was drunk every day in the year, and, more especially, +very drunk then. So I held my peace, saying only under my breath: + + "Dixit incipiens in corde suo, Non est Deus. Corrupti sunt et + abominables facti sunt in studiis suis; non est qui faciat bonum, non + est usque ad unum: sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum; linguis suis + dolose agebunt, venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. Dominum non + invocaverunt; illic trepid-averunt timore, ubi non erat timor. Quis + dabit ex Sion salutare Israel?" + +and so I went on, thinking too at times about the man who was dying and +whom I was soon to see: he had been a bold bad plundering baron, but was +said lately to have altered his way of life, having seen a miracle or +some such thing; he had departed to keep a tournament near his castle +lately, but had been brought back sore wounded, so this drunken servant, +with some difficulty and much unseasonable merriment, had made me +understand, and now lay at the point of death, brought about by unskilful +tending and such like. Then I thought of his face--a bad face, very bad, +retreating forehead, small twinkling eyes, projecting lower jaw; and such +a voice, too, he had! like the grunt of a bear mostly. + +Now don't you think it strange that this face should be the same, +actually the same as the face of my enemy, slain that very day ten years +ago? I did not hate him, either that man or the baron, but I wanted to +see as little of him as possible, and I hoped that the ceremony would +soon be over, and that I should be at liberty again. + +And so with these thoughts and many others, but all thought strangely +double, we went along, the varlet being too drunk to take much notice of +me, only once, as he was singing some doggrel, like this, I think, making +allowances for change of language and so forth: + + The Duke went to Treves + On the first of November; + His wife stay'd at Bonn-- + Let me see, I remember; + + When the Duke came back + To look for his wife, + We came from Cologne, + And took the Duke's life; + + We hung him mid high + Between spire and pavement, + From their mouths dropp'd the cabbage + Of the carles in amazement. + +"Boo--hoo! Church rat! Church mouse! Hilloa, Priest! have you brought +the pyx, eh?" + +From some cause or other he seemed to think this an excellent joke, for +he almost shrieked with laughter as we went along; but by this time we +had reached the castle. Challenge, and counter-challenge, and we passed +the outermost gate and began to go through some of the courts, in which +stood lime trees here and there, growing green tenderly with that +Maytime, though the north wind bit so keenly. + +How strange again! as I went farther, there seemed no doubt of it; here +in the aftertime came that pool, how I knew not; but in the few moments +that we were riding from the outer gate to the castle-porch I thought so +intensely over the probable cause for the existence of that pool, that +(how strange!) I could almost have thought I was back again listening to +the oozing of the land-springs through the high clay banks there. I was +wakened from that before it grew too strong, by the glare of many +torches, and, dismounting, found myself in the midst of some twenty +attendants, with flushed faces and wildly sparkling eyes, which they were +vainly trying to soften to due solemnity; mock solemnity I had almost +said, for they did not seem to think it necessary to appear really +solemn, and had difficulty enough apparently in not prolonging +indefinitely the shout of laughter with which they had at first greeted +me. "Take the holy Father to my Lord," said one at last, "and we will go +with him." + +So they led me up the stairs into the gorgeously-furnished chamber; the +light from the heavy waxen candles was pleasant to my eyes after the +glare and twisted red smoke of the pine-torches; but all the essences +scattered about the chamber were not enough to conquer the fiery breath +of those about me. + +I put on the alb and stole they brought me, and, before I went up to the +sick man, looked round on those that were in the rooms; for the rooms +opened one into the other by many doors, across some of which hung +gorgeous tapestry; all the rooms seemed to have many people, for some +stood at these doors, and some passed to and fro, swinging aside the +heavy hangings; once several people at once, seemingly quite by accident, +drew aside almost all the veils from the doors, and showed an endless +perspective of gorgeousness. + +And at these things my heart fainted for horror. "Had not the Jews of +late," thought I, the priest, "been very much in the habit of crucifying +children in mockery of the Holiest, holding gorgeous feasts while they +beheld the poor innocents die? These men are Atheists, you are in a +trap, yet quit yourself like a man." + +"Ah, sharp one," thought I, the author, "where are you at last? try to +pray as a test.--Well, well, these things are strangely like devils.--O +man, you have talked about bravery often, now is your time to practise +it: once for all trust in God, or I fear you are lost." + +Moreover it increased my horror that there was no appearance of a woman +in all these rooms; and yet was there not? there, those things--I looked +more intently; yes, no doubt they were women, but all dressed like +men;--what a ghastly place! + +"O man! do your duty," my angel said; then in spite of the bloodshot eyes +of man and woman there, in spite of their bold looks, they quailed before +me. + +I stepped up to the bed-side, where under the velvet coverlid lay the +dying man, his small sparkling eyes only (but dulled now by coming death) +showing above the swathings. I was about to kneel down by the bed-side +to confess him, when one of those--things--called out (now they had just +been whispering and sniggering together, but the priest in his righteous, +brave scorn would not look at them; the humbled author, half fearful, +half trustful, dared not) so one called out: + +"Sir Priest, for three days our master has spoken no articulate word; you +must pass over all particulars; ask for a sign only." + +Such a strange ghastly suspicion flashed across me just then; but I +choked it, and asked the dying man if he repented of his sins, and if he +believed all that was necessary to salvation, and, if so, to make a sign, +if he were able: the man moved a little and groaned; so I took it for a +sign, as he was clearly incapable either of speaking or moving, and +accordingly began the service for the administration of the sacraments; +and as I began, those behind me and through all the rooms (I know it was +through all of them) began to move about, in a bewildering dance-like +motion, mazy and intricate; yes, and presently music struck up through +all those rooms, music and singing, lively and gay; many of the tunes I +had heard before (in the nineteenth century) I could have sworn to half a +dozen of the polkas. + +The rooms grew fuller and fuller of people; they passed thick and fast +between the rooms, and the hangings were continually rustling; one fat +old man with a big belly crept under the bed where I was, and wheezed and +chuckled there, laughing and talking to one who stooped down and lifted +up the hangings to look at him. + +Still more and more people talking and singing and laughing and twirling +about, till my brain went round and round, and I scarce knew what I did; +yet, somehow, I could not leave off; I dared not even look over my +shoulder, fearing lest I should see something so horrible as to make me +die. + +So I got on with the service, and at last took the pyx, and took thereout +the sacred wafer, whereupon was a deep silence through all those rooms, +which troubled me, I think, more than all which had gone before, for I +knew well it did not mean reverence. + +I held It up, that which I counted so holy, when lo! great laughter, +echoing like thunder-claps through all the rooms, not dulled by the +veiling hangings, for they were all raised up together, and, with a slow +upheaval of the rich clothes among which he lay, with a sound that was +half snarl, half grunt, with a helpless body swathed in bedclothes, a +huge _swine_ that I had been shriving tore from me the Holy Thing, deeply +scoring my hand as he did so with tusk and tooth, so that the red blood +ran quick on to the floor. + +Therewithall he rolled down on to the floor, and lay there helplessly, +only able to roll to and fro, because of the swathings. + +Then right madly skirled the intolerable laughter, rising to shrieks that +were fearfuller than any scream of agony I ever heard; the hundreds of +people through all those grand rooms danced and wheeled about me, +shrieking, hemming me in with interlaced arms, the women loosing their +long hair and thrusting forward their horribly-grinning unsexed faces +toward me till I felt their hot breath. + +Oh! how I hated them all! almost hated all mankind for their sakes; how I +longed to get right quit of all men; among whom, as it seemed, all +sacredest things even were made a mock of. I looked about me fiercely, I +sprang forward, and clutched a sword from the gilded belt of one of those +who stood near me; with savage blows that threw the blood about the +gilded walls and their hangings right over the heads of those--things--I +cleared myself from them, and tore down the great stairs madly, yet could +not, as in a dream, go fast enough, because of my passion. + +I was out in the courtyard, among the lime trees soon, the north wind +blowing freshly on my heated forehead in that dawn. The outer gate was +locked and bolted; I stooped and raised a great stone and sent it at the +lock with all my strength, and I was stronger than ten men then; iron and +oak gave way before it, and through the ragged splinters I tore in +reckless fury, like a wild horse through a hazel hedge. + +And no one had pursued me. I knelt down on the dear green turf outside, +and thanked God with streaming eyes for my deliverance, praying him +forgiveness for my unwilling share in that night's mockery. + +Then I arose and turned to go, but even as I did so I heard a roar as if +the world were coming in two, and looking toward the castle, saw, not a +castle, but a great cloud of white lime-dust swaying this way and that in +the gusts of the wind. + +Then while the east grew bright there arose a hissing, gurgling noise, +that swelled into the roar and wash of many waters, and by then the sun +had risen a deep black lake lay before my feet. + +* * * * * + +And this is how I tried to fathom the Lindenborg Pool. + +* * * * * + + _No memory labours longer, from the deep_ + _Gold mines of thought to lift the hidden ore_ + _That glimpses, moving up, than I from sleep_ + _To gather and tell o'er_ + _Each little sound and sight_. + + + + +A DREAM. + + +I dreamed once, that four men sat by the winter fire talking and telling +tales, in a house that the wind howled round. + +And one of them, the eldest, said: "When I was a boy, before you came to +this land, that bar of red sand rock, which makes a fall in our river, +had only just been formed; for it used to stand above the river in a +great cliff, tunnelled by a cave about midway between the green-growing +grass and the green-flowing river; and it fell one night, when you had +not yet come to this land, no, nor your fathers. + +"Now, concerning this cliff, or pike rather (for it was a tall slip of +rock and not part of a range), many strange tales were told; and my +father used to say, that in his time many would have explored that cave, +either from covetousness (expecting to find gold therein ), or from that +love of wonders which most young men have, but fear kept them back. +Within the memory of man, however, some had entered, and, so men said, +were never seen on earth again; but my father said that the tales told +concerning such, very far from deterring him (then quite a youth) from +the quest of this cavern, made him all the more earnestly long to go; so +that one day in his fear, my grandfather, to prevent him, stabbed him in +the shoulder, so that he was obliged to keep his bed for long; and +somehow he never went, and died at last without ever having seen the +inside of the cavern. + +"My father told me many wondrous tales about the place, whereof for a +long time I have been able to remember nothing; yet, by some means or +another, a certain story has grown up in my heart, which I will tell you +something of; a story which no living creature ever told me, though I do +not remember the time when I knew it not. Yes, I will tell you some of +it, not all perhaps, but as much as I am allowed to tell." + +The man stopped and pondered awhile, leaning over the fire where the +flames slept under the caked coal: he was an old man, and his hair was +quite white. He spoke again presently. "And I have fancied sometimes, +that in some way, how I know not, I am mixed up with the strange story I +am going to tell you." Again he ceased, and gazed at the fire, bending +his head down till his beard touched his knees; then, rousing himself, +said in a changed voice (for he had been speaking dreamily hitherto): +"That strange-looking old house that you all know, with the limes and yew- +trees before it, and the double line of very old yew-trees leading up +from the gateway-tower to the porch--you know how no one will live there +now because it is so eerie, and how even that bold bad lord that would +come there, with his turbulent followers, was driven out in shame and +disgrace by invisible agency. Well, in times past there dwelt in that +house an old grey man, who was lord of that estate, his only daughter, +and a young man, a kind of distant cousin of the house, whom the lord had +brought up from a boy, as he was the orphan of a kinsman who had fallen +in combat in his quarrel. Now, as the young knight and the young lady +were both beautiful and brave, and loved beauty and good things ardently, +it was natural enough that they should discover as they grew up that they +were in love with one another; and afterwards, as they went on loving one +another, it was, alas! not unnatural that they should sometimes have half- +quarrels, very few and far between indeed, and slight to lookers-on, even +while they lasted, but nevertheless intensely bitter and unhappy to the +principal parties thereto. I suppose their love then, whatever it has +grown to since, was not so all-absorbing as to merge all differences of +opinion and feeling, for again there were such differences then. So, +upon a time it happened, just when a great war had arisen, and Lawrence +(for that was the knight's name) was sitting, and thinking of war, and +his departure from home; sitting there in a very grave, almost a stern +mood, that Ella, his betrothed, came in, gay and sprightly, in a humour +that Lawrence often enough could little understand, and this time liked +less than ever, yet the bare sight of her made him yearn for her full +heart, which he was not to have yet; so he caught her by the hand, and +tried to draw her down to him, but she let her hand lie loose in his, and +did not answer the pressure in which his heart flowed to hers; then he +arose and stood before her, face to face, but she drew back a little, yet +he kissed her on the mouth and said, though a rising in his throat almost +choked his voice, 'Ella, are you sorry I am going?' 'Yea,' she said, +'and nay, for you will shout my name among the sword flashes, and you +will fight for me.' 'Yes,' he said, 'for love and duty, dearest.' 'For +duty? ah! I think, Lawrence, if it were not for me, you would stay at +home and watch the clouds, or sit under the linden trees singing dismal +love ditties of your own making, dear knight: truly, if you turn out a +great warrior, I too shall live in fame, for I am certainly the making of +your desire to fight.' He let drop his hands from her shoulders, where +he had laid them, and said, with a faint flush over his face, 'You wrong +me, Ella, for, though I have never wished to fight for the mere love of +fighting, and though,' (and here again he flushed a little) 'and though I +am not, I well know, so free of the fear of death as a good man would be, +yet for this duty's sake, which is really a higher love, Ella, love of +God, I trust I would risk life, nay honour, even if not willingly, yet +cheerfully at least.' 'Still duty, duty,' she said; 'you lay, Lawrence, +as many people do, most stress on the point where you are weakest; +moreover, those knights who in time past have done wild, mad things +merely at their ladies' word, scarcely did so for duty; for they owed +their lives to their country surely, to the cause of good, and should not +have risked them for a whim, and yet you praised them the other day.' +'Did I?' said Lawrence; 'well, in a way they were much to be praised, for +even blind love and obedience is well; but reasonable love, reasonable +obedience is so far better as to be almost a different thing; yet, I +think, if the knights did well partly, the ladies did altogether ill: for +if they had faith in their lovers, and did this merely from a mad longing +to see them do 'noble' deeds, then they had but little faith in God, Who +can, and at His good pleasure does give time and opportunity to every +man, if he will but watch for it, to serve Him with reasonable service, +and gain love and all noble things in greater measure thereby: but if +these ladies did as they did, that they might prove their knights, then +surely did they lack faith both in God and man. I do not think that two +friends even could live together on such terms, but for lovers,--ah! +Ella, Ella, why do you look so at me? on this day, almost the last, we +shall be together for long; Ella, your face is changed, your eyes--O +Christ! help her and me, help her, good Lord.' 'Lawrence,' she said, +speaking quickly and in jerks, 'dare you, for my sake, sleep this night +in the cavern of the red pike? for I say to you that, faithful or not, I +doubt your courage.' But she was startled when she saw him, and how the +fiery blood rushed up to his forehead, then sank to his heart again, and +his face became as pale as the face of a dead man; he looked at her and +said, 'Yes, Ella, I will go now; for what matter where I go?' He turned +and moved toward the door; he was almost gone, when that evil spirit left +her, and she cried out aloud, passionately, eagerly: 'Lawrence, Lawrence, +come back once more, if only to strike me dead with your knightly sword.' +He hesitated, wavered, turned, and in another moment she was lying in his +arms weeping into his hair. + +"'And yet, Ella, the spoken word, the thought of our hearts cannot be +recalled, I must go, and go this night too, only promise one thing.' +'Dearest, what? you are always right!' 'Love, you must promise that if I +come not again by to-morrow at moonrise, you will go to the red pike, +and, having entered the cavern, go where God leads you, and seek me, and +never leave that quest, even if it end not but with death.' 'Lawrence, +how your heart beats! poor heart! are you afraid that I shall hesitate to +promise to perform that which is the only thing I could do? I know I am +not worthy to be with you, yet I must be with you in body or soul, or +body and soul will die.' They sat silent, and the birds sang in the +garden of lilies beyond; then said Ella again: 'Moreover, let us pray God +to give us longer life, so that if our natural lives are short for the +accomplishment of this quest, we may have more, yea, even many more +lives.' 'He will, my Ella,' said Lawrence, 'and I think, nay, am sure +that our wish will be granted; and I, too, will add a prayer, but will +ask it very humbly, namely, that he will give me another chance or more +to fight in His cause, another life to live instead of this failure.' +'Let us pray too that we may meet, however long the time be before our +meeting,' she said; so they knelt down and prayed, hand fast locked in +hand meantime; and afterwards they sat in that chamber facing the east, +hard by the garden of lilies; and the sun fell from his noontide light +gradually, lengthening the shadows, and when he sank below the sky-line +all the sky was faint, tender, crimson on a ground of blue; the crimson +faded too, and the moon began to rise, but when her golden rim first +showed over the wooded hills, Lawrence arose; they kissed one long +trembling kiss, and then he went and armed himself; and their lips did +not meet again after that, for such a long, long time, so many weary +years; for he had said: 'Ella, watch me from the porch, but touch me not +again at this time; only, when the moon shows level with the lily-heads, +go into the porch and watch me from thence.' + +"And he was gone;--you might have heard her heart beating while the moon +very slowly rose, till it shone through the rose-covered trellises, level +with the lily-heads; then she went to the porch and stood there,-- + +"And she saw him walking down toward the gateway-tower, clad in his mail- +coat, with a bright, crestless helmet on his head, and his trenchant +sword newly grinded, girt to his side; and she watched him going between +the yew-trees, which began to throw shadows from the shining of the +harvest moon. She stood there in the porch, and round by the corners of +the eaves of it looked down towards her and the inside of the porch two +serpent-dragons, carved in stone; and on their scales, and about their +leering eyes, grew the yellow lichen; she shuddered as she saw them stare +at her, and drew closer toward the half-open door; she, standing there, +clothed in white from her throat till over her feet, altogether +ungirdled; and her long yellow hair, without plait or band, fell down +behind and lay along her shoulders, quietly, because the night was +without wind, and she too was now standing scarcely moving a muscle. + +"She gazed down the line of the yew-trees, and watched how, as he went +for the most part with a firm step, he yet shrank somewhat from the +shadows of the yews; his long brown hair flowing downward, swayed with +him as he walked; and the golden threads interwoven with it, as the +fashion was with the warriors in those days, sparkled out from among it +now and then; and the faint, far-off moonlight lit up the waves of his +mail-coat; he walked fast, and was disappearing in the shadows of the +trees near the moat, but turned before he was quite lost in them, and +waved his ungauntletted hand; then she heard the challenge of the warder, +the falling of the drawbridge, the swing of the heavy wicket-gate on its +hinges; and, into the brightening lights, and deepening shadows of the +moonlight he went from her sight; and she left the porch and went to the +chapel, all that night praying earnestly there. + +"But he came not back again all the next day, and Ella wandered about +that house pale, and fretting her heart away; so when night came and the +moon, she arrayed herself in that same raiment that she had worn on the +night before, and went toward the river and the red pike. + +"The broad moon shone right over it by the time she came to the river; +the pike rose up from the other side, and she thought at first that she +would have to go back again, cross over the bridge, and so get to it; +but, glancing down on the river just as she turned, she saw a little boat +fairly gilt and painted, and with a long slender paddle in it, lying on +the water, stretching out its silken painter as the stream drew it +downwards, she entered it, and taking the paddle made for the other side; +the moon meanwhile turning the eddies to silver over the dark green +water: she landed beneath the shadow of that great pile of sandstone, +where the grass grew green, and the flowers sprung fair right up to the +foot of the bare barren rock; it was cut in many steps till it reached +the cave, which was overhung by creepers and matted grass; the stream +swept the boat downwards, and Ella, her heart beating so as almost to +stop her breath, mounted the steps slowly, slowly. She reached at last +the platform below the cave, and turning, gave a long gaze at the moonlit +country; 'her last,' she said; then she moved, and the cave hid her as +the water of the warm seas close over the pearl-diver. + +"Just so the night before had it hidden Lawrence. And they never came +back, they two:--never, the people say. I wonder what their love has +grown to now; ah! they love, I know, but cannot find each other yet, I +wonder also if they ever will." + +So spoke Hugh the white-haired. But he who sat over against him, a +soldier as it seemed, black-bearded, with wild grey eyes that his great +brows hung over far; he, while the others sat still, awed by some vague +sense of spirits being very near them; this man, Giles, cried out--"Never? +old Hugh, it is not so.--Speak! I cannot tell you how it happened, but I +know it was not so, not so:--speak quick, Hugh! tell us all, all!" + +"Wait a little, my son, wait," said Hugh; "the people indeed said they +never came back again at all, but I, but I--Ah! the time is long past +over." So he was silent, and sank his head on his breast, though his old +thin lips moved, as if he talked softly to himself, and the light of past +days flickered in his eyes. + +Meanwhile Giles sat with his hands clasped finger over finger, tightly, +"till the knuckles whitened;" his lips were pressed firmly together; his +breast heaved as though it would burst, as though it must be rid of its +secret. Suddenly he sprang up, and in a voice that was a solemn chant, +began: "In full daylight, long ago, on a slumberously-wrathful, +thunderous afternoon of summer;"--then across his chant ran the old man's +shrill voice: "On an October day, packed close with heavy-lying mist, +which was more than mere autumn-mist:"--the solemn stately chanting +dropped, the shrill voice went on; Giles sank down again, and Hugh +standing there, swaying to and fro to the measured ringing of his own +shrill voice, his long beard moving with him, said:-- + +"On such a day, warm, and stifling so that one could scarcely breathe +even down by the sea-shore, I went from bed to bed in the hospital of the +pest-laden city with my soothing draughts and medicines. And there went +with me a holy woman, her face pale with much watching; yet I think even +without those same desolate lonely watchings her face would still have +been pale. She was not beautiful, her face being somewhat +peevish-looking; apt, she seemed, to be made angry by trifles, and, even +on her errand of mercy, she spoke roughly to those she tended:--no, she +was not beautiful, yet I could not help gazing at her, for her eyes were +very beautiful and looked out from her ugly face as a fair maiden might +look from a grim prison between the window-bars of it. + +"So, going through that hospital, I came to a bed at last, whereon lay +one who had not been struck down by fever or plague, but had been smitten +through the body with a sword by certain robbers, so that he had narrowly +escaped death. Huge of frame, with stern suffering face he lay there; +and I came to him, and asked him of his hurt, and how he fared, while the +day grew slowly toward even, in that pest-chamber looking toward the +west; the sister came to him soon and knelt down by his bed-side to tend +him. + +"O Christ! As the sun went down on that dim misty day, the clouds and +the thickly-packed mist cleared off, to let him shine on us, on that +chamber of woes and bitter unpurifying tears; and the sunlight wrapped +those two, the sick man and the ministering woman, shone on them--changed, +changed utterly. Good Lord! How was I struck dumb, nay, almost blinded +by that change; for there--yes there, while no man but I wondered; there, +instead of the unloving nurse, knelt a wonderfully beautiful maiden, +clothed all in white, and with long golden hair down her back. Tenderly +she gazed at the wounded man, as her hands were put about his head, +lifting it up from the pillow but a very little; and he no longer the +grim, strong wounded man, but fair, and in the first bloom of youth; a +bright polished helmet crowned his head, a mail-coat flowed over his +breast, and his hair streamed down long from his head, while from among +it here and there shone out threads of gold. + +"So they spake thus in a quiet tone: 'Body and soul together again, Ella, +love; how long will it be now before the last time of all?' 'Long,' she +said, 'but the years pass; talk no more, dearest, but let us think only, +for the time is short, and our bodies call up memories, change love to +better even than it was in the old time.' + +"Silence so, while you might count a hundred, then with a great sigh: +'Farewell, Ella, for long,'--'Farewell, Lawrence,' and the sun sank, all +was as before. + +"But I stood at the foot of the bed pondering, till the sister coming to +me, said: 'Master Physician, this is no time for dreaming; act--the +patients are waiting, the fell sickness grows worse in this hot close +air; feel'--(and she swung open the casement), 'the outer air is no +fresher than the air inside; the wind blows dead toward the west, coming +from the stagnant marshes; the sea is like a stagnant pool too, you can +scarce hear the sound of the long, low surge breaking.' I turned from +her and went up to the sick man, and said: 'Sir Knight, in spite of all +the sickness about you, you yourself better strangely, and another month +will see you with your sword girt to your side again.' 'Thanks, kind +master Hugh,' he said, but impatiently, as if his mind were on other +things, and he turned in his bed away from me restlessly. + +"And till late that night I ministered to the sick in that hospital; but +when I went away, I walked down to the sea, and paced there to and fro +over the hard sand: and the moon showed bloody with the hot mist, which +the sea would not take on its bosom, though the dull east wind blew it +onward continually. I walked there pondering till a noise from over the +sea made me turn and look that way; what was that coming over the sea? +Laus Deo! the WEST WIND: Hurrah! I feel the joy I felt then over again +now, in all its intensity. How came it over the sea? first, far out to +sea, so that it was only just visible under the red-gleaming moonlight, +far out to sea, while the mists above grew troubled, and wavered, a long +level bar of white; it grew nearer quickly, it gathered form, strange, +misty, intricate form--the ravelled foam of the green sea; then oh! +hurrah! I was wrapped in it,--the cold salt spray--drenched with it, +blinded by it, and when I could see again, I saw the great green waves +rising, nodding and breaking, all coming on together; and over them from +wave to wave leaped the joyous WEST WIND; and the mist and the plague +clouds were sweeping back eastward in wild swirls; and right away were +they swept at last, till they brooded over the face of the dismal +stagnant meres, many miles away from our fair city, and there they +pondered wrathfully on their defeat. + +"But somehow my life changed from the time when I beheld the two lovers, +and I grew old quickly." He ceased; then after a short silence said +again: "And that was long ago, very long ago, I know not when it +happened." So he sank back again, and for a while no one spoke; till +Giles said at last: + +"Once in full daylight I saw a vision, while I was waking, while the eyes +of men were upon me; long ago on the afternoon of a thunderous summer +day, I sat alone in my fair garden near the city; for on that day a +mighty reward was to be given to the brave man who had saved us all, +leading us so mightily in that battle a few days back; now the very +queen, the lady of the land, whom all men reverenced almost as the Virgin +Mother, so kind and good and beautiful she was, was to crown him with +flowers and gird a sword about him; after the 'Te Deum' had been sung for +the victory, and almost all the city were at that time either in the +Church, or hard by it, or else were by the hill that was near the river +where the crowning was to be: but I sat alone in the garden of my house +as I said; sat grieving for the loss of my brave brother, who was slain +by my side in that same fight. I sat beneath an elm tree; and as I sat +and pondered on that still, windless day, I heard suddenly a breath of +air rustle through the boughs of the elm. I looked up, and my heart +almost stopped beating, I knew not why, as I watched the path of that +breeze over the bowing lilies and the rushes by the fountain; but when I +looked to the place whence the breeze had come, I became all at once +aware of an appearance that told me why my heart stopped beating. Ah! +there they were, those two whom before I had but seen in dreams by night, +now before my waking eyes in broad daylight. One, a knight (for so he +seemed), with long hair mingled with golden threads, flowing over his +mail-coat, and a bright crestless helmet on his head, his face +sad-looking, but calm; and by his side, but not touching him, walked a +wondrously fair maiden, clad in white, her eyelids just shadowing her +blue eyes: her arms and hands seeming to float along with her as she +moved on quickly, yet very softly; great rest on them both, though sorrow +gleamed through it. + +"When they came opposite to where I stood, these two stopped for a while, +being in nowise shadowy, as I have heard men say ghosts are, but clear +and distinct. They stopped close by me, as I stood motionless, unable to +pray; they turned to each other, face to face, and the maiden said, +'Love, for this our last true meeting before the end of all, we need a +witness; let this man, softened by sorrow, even as we are, go with us.' + +"I never heard such music as her words were; though I used to wonder when +I was young whether the angels in heaven sung better than the choiresters +sang in our church, and though, even then the sound of the triumphant +hymn came up to me in a breath of wind, and floated round me, making +dreams, in that moment of awe and great dread, of the old long-past days +in that old church, of her who lay under the pavement of it; whose sweet +voice once, once long ago, once only to me--yet I shall see her again." +He became silent as he said this, and no man cared to break in upon his +thoughts, seeing the choking movement in his throat, the fierce clenching +of hand and foot, the stiffening of the muscles all over him; but soon, +with an upward jerk of his head, he threw back the long elf locks that +had fallen over his eyes while his head was bent down, and went on as +before: + +"The knight passed his hand across his brow, as if to clear away some +mist that had gathered there, and said, in a deep murmurous voice, 'Why +the last time, dearest, why the last time? Know you not how long a time +remains yet? the old man came last night to the ivory house and told me +it would be a hundred years, ay, more, before the happy end.' 'So long,' +she said; 'so long: ah! love, what things words are; yet this is the last +time; alas! alas! for the weary years! my words, my sin!' 'O love, it is +very terrible,' he said; 'I could almost weep, old though I am, and grown +cold with dwelling in the ivory house: O, Ella, if you only knew how cold +it is there, in the starry nights when the north wind is stirring; and +there is no fair colour there, nought but the white ivory, with one +narrow line of gleaming gold over every window, and a fathom's-breadth of +burnished gold behind the throne. Ella, it was scarce well done of you +to send me to the ivory house.' 'Is it so cold, love?' she said, 'I knew +it not; forgive me! but as to the matter of a witness, some one we must +have, and why not this man?' 'Rather old Hugh,' he said, 'or Cuthbert, +his father; they have both been witnesses before.' 'Cuthbert,' said the +maiden, solemnly, 'has been dead twenty years; Hugh died last night.'" +(Now, as Giles said these words, carelessly, as though not heeding them +particularly, a cold sickening shudder ran through the other two men, but +he noted it not and went on.) "'This man then be it,' said the knight, +and therewith they turned again, and moved on side by side as before; nor +said they any word to me, and yet I could not help following them, and we +three moved on together, and soon I saw that my nature was changed, and +that I was invisible for the time; for, though the sun was high, I cast +no shadow, neither did any man that we past notice us, as we made toward +the hill by the riverside. + +"And by the time we came there the queen was sitting at the top of it, +under a throne of purple and gold, with a great band of knights +gloriously armed on either side of her; and their many banners floated +over them. Then I felt that those two had left me, and that my own right +visible nature was returned; yet still did I feel strange, and as if I +belonged not wholly to this earth. And I heard one say, in a low voice +to his fellow, 'See, sir Giles is here after all; yet, how came he here, +and why is he not in armour among the noble knights yonder, he who fought +so well? how wild he looks too!' 'Poor knight,' said the other, 'he is +distraught with the loss of his brother; let him be; and see, here comes +the noble stranger knight, our deliverer.' As he spoke, we heard a great +sound of trumpets, and therewithall a long line of knights on foot wound +up the hill towards the throne, and the queen rose up, and the people +shouted; and, at the end of all the procession went slowly and +majestically the stranger knight; a man of noble presence he was, calm, +and graceful to look on; grandly he went amid the gleaming of their +golden armour; himself clad in the rent mail and tattered surcoat he had +worn on the battle-day; bareheaded, too; for, in that fierce fight, in +the thickest of it, just where he rallied our men, one smote off his +helmet, and another, coming from behind, would have slain him, but that +my lance bit into his breast. + +"So, when they had come within some twenty paces of the throne, the rest +halted, and he went up by himself toward the queen; and she, taking the +golden hilted sword in her left hand, with her right caught him by the +wrist, when he would have knelt to her, and held him so, tremblingly, and +cried out, 'No, no, thou noblest of all knights, kneel not to me; have we +not heard of thee even before thou camest hither? how many widows bless +thee, how many orphans pray for thee, how many happy ones that would be +widows and orphans but for thee, sing to their children, sing to their +sisters, of thy flashing sword, and the heart that guides it! And now, O +noble one! thou hast done the very noblest deed of all, for thou hast +kept grown men from weeping shameful tears! O truly, the greatest I can +do for thee is very little; yet, see this sword, golden-hilted, and the +stones flash out from it,' (then she hung it round him), 'and see this +wreath of lilies and roses for thy head; lilies no whiter than thy pure +heart, roses no tenderer than thy true love; and here, before all these +my subjects, I fold thee, noblest, in my arms, so, so.' Ay, truly it was +strange enough! those two were together again; not the queen and the +stranger knight, but the young-seeming knight and the maiden I had seen +in the garden. To my eyes they clung together there; though they say, +that to the eyes of all else, it was but for a moment that the queen held +both his hands in hers; to me also, amid the shouting of the multitude, +came an under current of happy song: 'Oh! truly, very truly, my noblest, +a hundred years will not be long after this.' 'Hush, Ella, dearest, for +talking makes the time speed; think only.' + +"Pressed close to each other, as I saw it, their bosoms heaved--but I +looked away--alas! when I looked again, I saw nought but the stately +stranger knight, descending, hand in hand, with the queen, flushed with +joy and triumph, and the people scattering flowers before them. + +"And that was long ago, very long ago." So he ceased; then Osric, one of +the two younger men, who had been sitting in awe-struck silence all this +time, said, with eyes that dared not meet Giles's, in a terrified half +whisper, as though he meant not to speak, "How long?" Giles turned round +and looked him full in the face, till he dragged his eyes up to his own, +then said, "More than a hundred years ago." + +So they all sat silent, listening to the roar of the south-west wind; and +it blew the windows so, that they rocked in their frames. + +Then suddenly, as they sat thus, came a knock at the door of the house; +so Hugh bowed his head to Osric, to signify that he should go and open +the door; so he arose, trembling, and went. + +And as he opened the door the wind blew hard against him, and blew +something white against his face, then blew it away again, and his face +was blanched, even to his lips; but he plucking up heart of grace, looked +out, and there he saw, standing with her face upturned in speech to him, +a wonderfully beautiful woman, clothed from her throat till over her feet +in long white raiment, ungirt, unbroidered, and with a veil, that was +thrown off from her face, and hung from her head, streaming out in the +blast of the wind: which veil was what had struck against his face: +beneath her veil her golden hair streamed out too, and with the veil, so +that it touched his face now and then. She was very fair, but she did +not look young either, because of her statue-like features. She spoke to +him slowly and queenly; "I pray you give me shelter in your house for an +hour, that I may rest, and so go on my journey again." He was too much +terrified to answer in words, and so only bowed his head: and she swept +past him in stately wise to the room where the others sat, and he +followed her, trembling. + +A cold shiver ran through the other men when she entered and bowed low to +them, and they turned deadly pale, but dared not move; and there she sat +while they gazed at her, sitting there and wondering at her beauty, which +seemed to grow every minute; though she was plainly not young, oh no, but +rather very, very old, who could say how old? there she sat, and her +long, long hair swept down in one curve from her head and just touched +the floor. Her face had the tokens of a deep sorrow on it, ah! a mighty +sorrow, yet not so mighty as that it might mar her ineffable loveliness; +that sorrow-mark seemed to gather too, and at last the gloriously-slow +music of her words flowed from her lips: "Friends, has one with the +appearance of a youth come here lately; one with long brown hair, +interwoven with threads of gold, flowing down from out his polished steel +helmet; with dark blue eyes and high white forehead, and mail-coat over +his breast, where the light and shadow lie in waves as he moves; have you +seen such an one, very beautiful?" + +Then withall as they shook their heads fearfully in answer, a great sigh +rose up from her heart, and she said: "Then must I go away again +presently, and yet I thought it was the last night of all." + +And so she sat awhile with her head resting on her hand; after, she arose +as if about to go, and turned her glorious head round to thank the master +of the house; and they, strangely enough, though they were terrified at +her presence, were yet grieved when they saw that she was going. + +Just then the wind rose higher than ever before, yet through the roar of +it they could all hear plainly a knocking at the door again; so the lady +stopped when she heard it, and, turning, looked full in the face of +Herman the youngest, who thereupon, being constrained by that look, rose +and went to the door; and as before with Osric, so now the wind blew +strong against him; and it blew into his face, so as to blind him, +tresses of soft brown hair mingled with glittering threads of gold; and +blinded so, he heard some one ask him musically, solemnly, if a lady with +golden hair and white raiment was in that house; so Herman, not answering +in words, because of his awe and fear, merely bowed his head; then he was +'ware of some one in bright armour passing him, for the gleam of it was +all about him, for as yet he could not see clearly, being blinded by the +hair that had floated about him. + +But presently he followed him into the room, and there stood such an one +as the lady had described; the wavering flame of the light gleamed from +his polished helmet, touched the golden threads that mingled with his +hair, ran along the rings of his mail. + +They stood opposite to each other for a little, he and the lady, as if +they were somewhat shy of each other after their parting of a hundred +years, in spite of the love which they had for each other: at last he +made one step, and took off his gleaming helmet, laid it down softly, +then spread abroad his arms, and she came to him, and they were clasped +together, her head lying over his shoulder; and the four men gazed, quite +awe-struck. + +And as they gazed, the bells of the church began to ring, for it was New- +Year's-eve; and still they clung together, and the bells rang on, and the +old year died. + +And there beneath the eyes of those four men the lovers slowly faded away +into a heap of snow-white ashes. Then the four men kneeled down and +prayed, and the next day they went to the priest, and told him all that +had happened. + +So the people took those ashes and buried them in their church, in a +marble tomb, and above it they caused to be carved their figures lying +with clasped hands; and on the sides of it the history of the cave in the +red pike. + +And in my dream I saw the moon shining on the tomb, throwing fair colours +on it from the painted glass; till a sound of music rose, deepened, and +fainted; then I woke. + + + + +GOLDEN WINGS + + + Lyf lythes to nee, + Twa wordes or three, + Of one who was fair and free, + And fele in his fight. + + --_Sir Percival_. + +I suppose my birth was somewhat after the birth of Sir Percival of +Galles, for I never saw my father, and my mother brought me up quaintly; +not like a poor man's son, though, indeed, we had little money, and lived +in a lone place: it was on a bit of waste land near a river; moist, and +without trees; on the drier parts of it folks had built cottages--see, I +can count them on my fingers--six cottages, of which ours was one. + +Likewise, there was a little chapel, with a yew tree and graves in the +church-yard--graves--yes, a great many graves, more than in the yards of +many Minsters I have seen, because people fought a battle once near us, +and buried many bodies in deep pits, to the east of the chapel; but this +was before I was born. + +I have talked to old knights since who fought in that battle, and who +told me that it was all about a lady that they fought; indeed, this lady, +who was a queen, was afterwards, by her own wish, buried in the aforesaid +chapel in a most fair tomb; her image was of latoun gilt, and with a +colour on it; her hands and face were of silver, and her hair, gilded and +most curiously wrought, flowed down from her head over the marble. + +It was a strange sight to see that gold and brass and marble inside that +rough chapel which stood on the marshy common, near the river. + +Now, every St. Peter's day, when the sun was at its hottest, in the mid- +summer noontide, my mother (though at other times she only wore such +clothes as the folk about us) would dress herself most richly, and shut +the shutters against all the windows, and light great candles, and sit as +though she were a queen, till the evening: sitting and working at a +frame, and singing as she worked. + +And what she worked at was two wings, wrought in gold, on a blue ground. + +And as for what she sung, I could never understand it, though I know now +it was not in Latin. + +And she used to charge me straightly never to let any man into the house +on St. Peter's day; therefore, I and our dog, which was a great old +bloodhound, always kept the door together. + +But one St. Peter's day, when I was nearly twenty, I sat in the house +watching the door with the bloodhound, and I was sleepy, because of the +shut-up heat and my mother's singing, so I began to nod, and at last, +though the dog often shook me by the hair to keep me awake, went fast +asleep, and began to dream a foolish dream without hearing, as men +sometimes do: for I thought that my mother and I were walking to mass +through the snow on a Christmas day, but my mother carried a live goose +in her hand, holding it by the neck, instead of her rosary, and that I +went along by her side, not walking, but turning somersaults like a +mountebank, my head never touching the ground; when we got to the chapel +door, the old priest met us, and said to my mother, 'Why dame alive, your +head is turned green! Ah! never mind, I will go and say mass, but don't +let little Mary there go,' and he pointed to the goose, and went. + +Then mass begun, but in the midst of it, the priest said out aloud, 'Oh I +forgot,' and turning round to us began to wag his grey head and white +beard, throwing his head right back, and sinking his chin on his breast +alternately; and when we saw him do this, we presently began also to +knock our heads against the wall, keeping time with him and with each +other, till the priest said, 'Peter! it's dragon-time now,' whereat the +roof flew off, and a great yellow dragon came down on the chapel-floor +with a flop, and danced about clumsily, wriggling his fat tail, and +saying to a sort of tune, 'O the Devil, the Devil, the Devil, O the +Devil,' so I went up to him, and put my hand on his breast, meaning to +slay him, and so awoke, and found myself standing up with my hand on the +breast of an armed knight; the door lay flat on the ground, and under it +lay Hector, our dog, whining and dying. + +For eight hours I had been asleep; on awaking, the blood rushed up into +my face, I heard my mother's low mysterious song behind me, and knew not +what harm might happen to her and me, if that knight's coming made her +cease in it; so I struck him with my left hand, where his face was bare +under his mail-coif, and getting my sword in my light hand, drove its +point under his hawberk, so that it came out behind, and he fell, turned +over on his face, and died. + +Then, because my mother still went on working and singing, I said no +word, but let him lie there, and put the door up again, and found Hector +dead. + +I then sat down again and polished my sword with a piece of leather after +I had wiped the blood from it; and in an hour my mother arose from her +work, and raising me from where I was sitting, kissed my brow, saying, +'Well done, Lionel, you have slain our greatest foe, and now the people +will know you for what you are before you die--Ah God! though not before +_I_ die.' + +So I said, 'Who is he, mother? he seems to be some Lord; am I a Lord +then?' + +'A King, if the people will but know it,' she said. + +Then she knelt down by the dead body, turned it round again, so that it +lay face uppermost, as before, then said: + +'And so it has all come to this, has it? To think that you should run on +my son's sword-point at last, after all the wrong you have done me and +mine; now must I work carefully, least when you are dead you should still +do me harm, for that you are a King--Lionel!' + +'Yea, Mother.' + +'Come here and see; this is what I have wrought these many Peter's days +by day, and often other times by night.' + +'It is a surcoat, Mother; for me?' + +'Yea, but take a spade, and come into the wood.' + +So we went, and my mother gazed about her for a while as if she were +looking for something, but then suddenly went forward with her eyes on +the ground, and she said to me: + +'Is it not strange, that I who know the very place I am going to take you +to, as well as our own garden, should have a sudden fear come over me +that I should not find it after all; though for these nineteen years I +have watched the trees change and change all about it--ah! here, stop +now.' + +We stopped before a great oak; a beech tree was behind us--she said, +'Dig, Lionel, hereabouts.' + +So I dug and for an hour found nothing but beech roots, while my mother +seemed as if she were going mad, sometimes running about muttering to +herself, sometimes stooping into the hole and howling, sometimes throwing +herself on the grass and twisting her hands together above her head; she +went once down the hill to a pool that had filled an old gravel pit, and +came back dripping and with wild eyes; 'I am too hot,' she said, 'far too +hot this St. Peter's day.' + +Clink just then from my spade against iron; my mother screamed, and I dug +with all my might for another hour, and then beheld a chest of heavy wood +bound with iron ready to be heaved out of the hole; 'Now Lionel weigh it +out--hard for your life!' + +And with some trouble I got the chest out; she gave me a key, I unlocked +the chest, and took out another wrapped in lead, which also I unlocked +with a silver key that my mother gave me, and behold therein lay +armour--mail for the whole body, made of very small rings wrought most +wonderfully, for every ring was fashioned like a serpent, and though they +were so small yet could you see their scales and their eyes, and of some +even the forked tongue was on it, and lay on the rivet, and the rings +were gilded here and there into patterns and flowers so that the gleam of +it was most glorious.--And the mail coif was all gilded and had red and +blue stones at the rivets; and the tilting helms (inside which the mail +lay when I saw it first) was gilded also, and had flowers pricked out on +it; and the chain of it was silver, and the crest was two gold wings. And +there was a shield of blue set with red stones, which had two gold wings +for a cognizance; and the hilt of the sword was gold, with angels wrought +in green and blue all up it, and the eyes in their wings were of pearls +and red stones, and the sheath was of silver with green flowers on it. + +Now when I saw this armour and understood that my mother would have me +put it on, and ride out without fear, leaving her alone, I cast myself +down on the grass so that I might not see its beauty (for it made me +mad), and strove to think; but what thoughts soever came to me were only +of the things that would be, glory in the midst of ladies, battle-joy +among knights, honour from all kings and princes and people--these +things. + +But my mother wept softly above me, till I arose with a great shudder of +delight and drew the edges of the hawberk over my cheek, I liked so to +feel the rings slipping, slipping, till they fell off altogether; then I +said: + +'O Lord God that made the world, if I might only die in this armour!' + +Then my mother helped me to put it on, and I felt strange and new in it, +and yet I had neither lance nor horse. + +So when we reached the cottage again she said: 'See now, Lionel, you must +take this knight's horse and his lance, and ride away, or else the people +will come here to kill another king; and when you are gone, you will +never see me any more in life.' + +I wept thereat, but she said: 'Nay, but see here.' + +And taking the dead knight's lance from among the garden lilies, she rent +from it the pennon (which had a sword on a red ground for bearing), and +cast it carelessly on the ground, then she bound about it a pennon with +my bearing, gold wings on a blue ground; she bid me bear the Knight's +body, all armed as he was, to put on him his helm and lay him on the +floor at her bed's foot, also to break his sword and cast it on our +hearth-stone; all which things I did. + +Afterwards she put the surcoat on me, and then lying down in her gorgeous +raiment on her bed, she spread her arms out in the form of a cross, shut +her eyes, and said: + +'Kiss me, Lionel, for I am tired.' + +And after I had kissed her she died. + +And I mounted my dead foe's horse and rode away; neither did I ever know +what wrong that was which he had done me, not while I was in the body at +least. + +And do not blame me for not burying my mother; I left her there because, +though she did not say so to me, yet I knew the thoughts of her heart, +and that the thing she had wished so earnestly for these years, and +years, and years, had been but to lie dead with him lying dead close to +her. + +So I rode all that night for I could not stop, because of the thoughts +that were in me, and, stopping at this place and that, in three days came +to the city. + +And there the King held his court with great pomp. + +And so I went to the palace, and asked to see the King; whereupon they +brought me into the great hall where he was with all his knights, and my +heart swelled within me to think that I too was a King. + +So I prayed him to make me a knight, and he spake graciously and asked me +my name; so when I had told it him, and said that I was a king's son, he +pondered, not knowing what to do, for I could not tell him whose son I +was. + +Whereupon one of the knights came near me and shaded his eyes with his +hand as one does in a bright sun, meaning to mock at me for my shining +armour, and he drew nearer and nearer till his long stiff beard just +touched me, and then I smote him on the face, and he fell on the floor. + +So the king being in a rage, roared out from the door, 'Slay him!' but I +put my shield before me and drew my sword, and the women drew together +aside and whispered fearfully, and while some of the knights took spears +and stood about me, others got their armour on. + +And as we stood thus we heard a horn blow, and then an armed knight came +into the hall and drew near to the King; and one of the maidens behind +me, came and laid her hand on my shoulder; so I turned and saw that she +was very fair, and then I was glad, but she whispered to me: 'Sir Squire +for a love I have for your face and gold armour, I will give you good +counsel; go presently to the King and say to him: "In the name of Alys +des roses and Sir Guy le bon amant I pray you three boons,"--do this, and +you will be alive, and a knight by to-morrow, otherwise I think hardly +the one or the other.' + +'The Lord reward you damoyzel,' I said. Then I saw that the King had +left talking with that knight and was just going to stand up and say +something out loud, so I went quickly and called out with a loud voice: + +'O King Gilbert of the rose-land, I, Lionel of the golden wings, pray of +you three boons in the name of Alys des roses and Sir Guy le bon amant.' + +Then the King gnashed his teeth because he had promised if ever his +daughter Alys des roses came back safe again, he would on that day grant +any three boons to the first man who asked them, even if he were his +greatest foe. He said, 'Well, then, take them, what are they?' + +'First, my life; then, that you should make me a knight; and thirdly, +that you should take me into your service.' + +He said, 'I will do this, and moreover, I forgive you freely if you will +be my true man.' Then we heard shouting arise through all the city +because they were bringing the Lady Alys from the ship up to the palace, +and the people came to the windows, and the houses were hung with cloths +and banners of silk and gold, that swung down right from the eaves to the +ground; likewise the bells all rang: and within a while they entered the +palace, and the trumpets rang and men shouted, so that my head whirled; +and they entered the hall, and the King went down from the dais to meet +them. + +Now a band of knights and of damoyzels went before and behind, and in the +midst Sir Guy led the Lady Alys by the hand, and he was a most stately +knight, strong and fair. + +And I indeed noted the first band of knights and damoyzels well, and +wondered at the noble presence of the knights, and was filled with joy +when I beheld the maids, because of their great beauty; the second band I +did not see, for when they passed I was leaning back against the wall, +wishing to die with my hands before my face. But when I could see, she +was hanging about her father's neck, weeping, and she never left him all +that night, but held his hand in feast and dance, and even when I was +made knight, while the king with his right hand laid his sword over my +shoulder, she held his left hand and was close to me. + +And the next day they held a grand tourney, that I might be proven; and I +had never fought with knights before, yet I did not doubt. And Alys sat +under a green canopy, that she might give the degree to the best knight, +and by her sat the good knight Sir Guy, in a long robe, for he did not +mean to joust that day; and indeed at first none but young knights +jousted, for they thought that I should not do much. + +But I, looking up to the green canopy, overthrew so many of them, that +the elder knights began to arm, and I grew most joyful as I met them, and +no man unhorsed me; and always I broke my spear fairly, or else overthrew +my adversary. + +Now that maiden who counselled me in the hall, told me afterwards that as +I fought, the Lady Alys held fast to the rail before her, and leaned +forward and was most pale, never answering any word that any one might +say to her, till the Knight Guy said to her in anger: 'Alys! what ails +you? you would have been glad enough to speak to me when King Wadrayns +carried you off shrieking, or that other time when the chain went round +about you, and the faggots began to smoke in the Brown City: do you not +love me any longer? O Alys, Alys! just think a little, and do not break +your faith with me; God hates nothing so much as this. Sweet, try to +love me, even for your own sake! See, am I not kind to you?' + +That maiden said that she turned round to him wonderingly, as if she had +not caught his meaning, and that just for one second, then stretched out +over the lists again. + +Now till about this time I had made no cry as I jousted. But there came +against me a very tall knight, on a great horse, and when we met our +spears both shivered, and he howled with vexation, for he wished to slay +me, being the brother of that knight I had struck down in the hall the +day before. + +And they say that when Alys heard his howl sounding faintly through the +bars of his great helm, she trembled; but I know not, for I was stronger +than that knight, and when we fought with swords, I struck him right out +of his saddle, and near slew him with that stroke. + +Whereupon I shouted 'Alys' out loud, and she blushed red for pleasure, +and Sir Guy took note of it, and rose up in a rage and ran down and +armed. + +Then presently I saw a great knight come riding in with three black +chevrons on a gold shield: and so he began to ride at me, and at first we +only broke both our spears, but then he drew his sword, and fought quite +in another way to what the other knights had, so that I saw at once that +I had no chance against him: nevertheless, for a long time he availed +nothing, though he wounded me here and there, but at last drove his sword +right through mine, through my shield and my helm, and I fell, and lay +like one dead. + +And thereat the King cried out to cease, and the degree was given to Sir +Guy, because I had overthrown forty knights and he had overthrown me. + +Then they told me, I was carried out of the lists and laid in a hostelry +near the palace, and Guy went up to the pavilion where Alys was and she +crowned him, both of them being very pale, for she doubted if I were +slain, and he knew that she did not love him, thinking before that she +did; for he was good and true, and had saved her life and honour, and she +(poor maid!) wished to please her father, and strove to think that all +was right. + +But I was by no means slain, for the sword had only cleft my helm, and +when I came to myself again I felt despair of all things, because I knew +not that she loved me, for how should she, knowing nothing of me? +likewise dust had been cast on my gold wings, and she saw it done. + +Then I heard a great crying in the street, that sounded strangely in the +quiet night, so I sent to ask what it might be: and there came presently +into my chamber a man in gilded armour; he was an old man, and his hair +and beard were gray, and behind him came six men armed, who carried a +dead body of a young man between them, and I said, 'What is it? who is +he?' Then the old man, whose head was heavy for grief, said: 'Oh, sir! +this is my son; for as we went yesterday with our merchandize some twenty +miles from this fair town, we passed by a certain hold, and therefrom +came a knight and men at arms, who when my son would have fought with +them, overthrew him and bound him, and me and all our men they said they +would slay if we did ought; so then they cut out my son's eyes, and cut +off his hands, and then said, "The Knight of High Gard takes these for +tribute." Therewithal they departed, taking with them my son's eyes and +his hands on a platter; and when they were gone I would have followed +them, and slain some of them at least, but my own people would not suffer +me, and for grief and pain my son's heart burst, and he died, and behold +I am here.' + +Then I thought I could win glory, and I was much rejoiced thereat, and +said to the old man, + +'Would you love to be revenged?' + +But he set his teeth, and pulled at the skirt of his surcoat, as hardly +for his passion he said, 'Yes.' + +'Then,' I said, 'I will go and try to slay this knight, if you will show +me the way to La Haute Garde.' + +And he, taking my hand, said, 'O glorious knight, let us go now!' And he +did not ask who I was, or whether I was a good knight, but began to go +down the stairs at once, so I put on my armour and followed him. + +And we two set forth alone to La Haute Garde, for no man else dared +follow us, and I rejoiced in thinking that while Guy was sitting at the +King's table feasting, I was riding out to slay the King's enemies, for +it never once seemed possible to me that I should be worsted. + +It was getting light again by then we came in sight of High Gard; we +wound up the hill on foot, for it was very steep; I blew at the gates a +great blast which was even as though the stag should blow his own mort, +or like the blast that Balen heard. + +For in a very short while the gates opened and a great band of armed men, +more than thirty I think, and a knight on horseback among them, who was +armed in red, stood before us, and on one side of him was a serving man +with a silver dish, on the other, one with a butcher's cleaver, a knife, +and pincers. + +So when the knight saw us he said, 'What, are you come to pay tribute in +person, old man, and is this another fair son? Good sir, how is your +lady?' + +So I said grimly, being in a rage, 'I have a will to slay you.' + +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. + + + + +SVEND AND HIS BRETHREN + + +A king in the olden time ruled over a mighty nation: a proud man he must +have been, any man who was king of that nation: hundreds of lords, each a +prince over many people, sat about him in the council chamber, under the +dim vault, that was blue like the vault of heaven, and shone with +innumerable glistenings of golden stars. + +North, south, east, and west spread that land of his, the sea did not +stop it; his empire clomb the high mountains, and spread abroad its arms +over the valleys of them; all along the sea-line shore cities set with +their crowns of towers in the midst of broad bays, each fit, it seemed, +to be a harbour for the navies of all the world. + +Inland the pastures and cornlands lay, chequered much with climbing, over- +tumbling grape vines, under the sun that crumbled their clods, and drew +up the young wheat in the spring-time, under the rain that made the long +grass soft and fine, under all fair fertilising influences: the streams +leapt down from the mountain tops, or cleft their way through the ridged +ravines; they grew great rivers, like seas each one. + +The mountains were cloven, and gave forth from their scarred sides wealth +of ore and splendour of marble; all things this people that King Valdemar +ruled over could do; they levelled mountains, that over the smooth roads +the wains might go, laden with silk and spices from the sea: they drained +lakes, that the land might yield more and more, as year by year the +serfs, driven like cattle, but worse fed, worse housed, died slowly, +scarce knowing that they had souls; they builded them huge ships, and +said that they were masters of the sea too; only, I trow the sea was an +unruly subject, and often sent them back their ships cut into more pieces +than the pines of them were, when the adze first fell upon them; they +raised towers, and bridges, and marble palaces with endless corridors +rose-scented, and cooled with welling fountains. + +They sent great armies and fleets to all the points of heaven that the +wind blows from, who took and burned many happy cities, wasted many +fields and valleys, blotted out from the memory of men the names of +nations, made their men's lives a hopeless shame and misery to them, +their women's lives disgrace, and then came home to have flowers thrown +on them in showers, to be feasted and called heroes. + +Should not then their king be proud of them? Moreover they could fashion +stone and brass into the shapes of men; they could write books; they knew +the names of the stars, and their number; they knew what moved the +passions of men in the hearts of them, and could draw you up cunningly, +catalogues of virtues and vices; their wise men could prove to you that +any lie was true, that any truth was false, till your head grew dizzy, +and your heart sick, and you almost doubted if there were a God. + +Should not then their king be proud of them? Their men were strong in +body, and moved about gracefully--like dancers; and the purple-black, +scented hair of their gold-clothed knights seemed to shoot out rays under +the blaze of light that shone like many suns in the king's halls. Their +women's faces were very fair in red and white, their skins fair and half- +transparent like the marble of their mountains, and their voices sounded +like the rising of soft music from step to step of their own white +palaces. + +Should not then their king be proud of such a people, who seemed to help +so in carrying on the world to its consummate perfection, which they even +hoped their grandchildren would see? + +Alas! alas! they were slaves--king and priest, noble and burgher, just as +much as the meanest tasked serf, perhaps more even than he, for they were +so willingly, but he unwillingly enough. + +They could do everything but justice, and truth, and mercy; therefore +God's judgments hung over their heads, not fallen yet, but surely to fall +one time or other. + +For ages past they had warred against one people only, whom they could +not utterly subdue; a feeble people in numbers, dwelling in the very +midst of them, among the mountains; yet now they were pressing them +close; acre after acre, with seas of blood to purchase each acre, had +been wrested from the free people, and their end seemed drawing near; and +this time the king, Valdemar, had marched to their land with a great +army, to make war on them, he boasted to himself, almost for the last +time. + +A walled town in the free land; in that town, a house built of rough, +splintery stones; and in a great low-browed room of that house, a grey- +haired man pacing to and fro impatiently: 'Will she never come?' he says, +'it is two hours since the sun set; news, too, of the enemy's being in +the land; how dreadful if she is taken!' His great broad face is marked +with many furrows made by the fierce restless energy of the man; but +there is a wearied look on it, the look of a man who, having done his +best, is yet beaten; he seemed to long to be gone and be at peace: he, +the fighter in many battles, who often had seemed with his single arm to +roll back the whole tide of fight, felt despairing enough now; this last +invasion, he thought, must surely quite settle the matter; wave after +wave, wave after wave, had broken on that dear land and been rolled back +from it, and still the hungry sea pressed on; they must be finally +drowned in that sea; how fearfully they had been tried for their sins. +Back again to his anxiety concerning Cissela, his daughter, go his +thoughts, and he still paces up and down wearily, stopping now and then +to gaze intently on things which he has seen a hundred times; and the +night has altogether come on. + +At last the blast of a horn from outside, challenge and +counter-challenge, and the wicket to the court-yard is swung open; for +this house, being in a part of the city where the walls are somewhat +weak, is a little fortress in itself, and is very carefully guarded. The +old man's face brightened at the sound of the new comers, and he went +toward the entrance of the house where he was met by two young knights +fully armed, and a maiden. 'Thank God you are come,' he says; but stops +when he sees her face, which is quite pale, almost wild with some sorrow. +'The saints! Cissela, what is it?' he says. 'Father, Eric will tell +you.' Then suddenly a clang, for Eric has thrown on the ground a richly- +jewelled sword, sheathed, and sets his foot on it, crunching the pearls +on the sheath; then says, flinging up his head,--'There, father, the +enemy is in the land; may that happen to every one of them! but for my +part I have accounted for two already.' 'Son Eric, son Eric, you talk +for ever about yourself; quick, tell me about Cissela instead: if you go +on boasting and talking always about yourself, you will come to no good +end, son, after all.' But as he says this, he smiles nevertheless, and +his eye glistens. + +'Well, father, listen--such a strange thing she tells us, not to be +believed, if she did not tell us herself; the enemy has suddenly got +generous, one of them at least, which is something of a disappointment to +me--ah! pardon, about my self again; and that is about myself too. Well, +father, what am I to do?--But Cissela, she wandered some way from her +maidens, when--ah! but I never could tell a story properly, let her tell +it herself; here, Cissela!--well, well, I see she is better employed, +talking namely, how should I know what! with Siur in the window-seat +yonder--but she told us that, as she wandered almost by herself, she +presently heard shouts and saw many of the enemy's knights riding quickly +towards her; whereat she knelt only and prayed to God, who was very +gracious to her; for when, as she thought, something dreadful was about +to happen, the chief of the knights (a very noble-looking man, she said) +rescued her, and, after he had gazed earnestly into her face, told her +she might go back again to her own home, and her maids with her, if only +she would tell him where she dwelt and her name; and withal he sent three +knights to escort her some way toward the city; then he turned and rode +away with all his knights but those three, who, when they knew that he +had quite gone, she says, began to talk horribly, saying things whereof +in her terror she understood the import only: then, before worse came to +pass came I and slew two, as I said, and the other ran away 'lustily with +a good courage'; and that is the sword of one of the slain knights, or, +as one might rather call them, rascally caitiffs.' + +The old man's thoughts seemed to have gone wandering after his son had +finished; for he said nothing for some time, but at last spoke +dejectedly: + +'Eric, brave son, when I was your age I too hoped, and my hopes are come +to this at last; you are blind in your hopeful youth, Eric, and do not +see that this king (for the king it certainly was) will crush us, and not +the less surely because he is plainly not ungenerous, but rather a good, +courteous knight. Alas! poor old Gunnar, broken down now and ready to +die, as your country is! How often, in the olden time, thou used'st to +say to thyself, as thou didst ride at the head of our glorious house, +'this charge may finish this matter, this battle must.' They passed +away, those gallant fights, and still the foe pressed on, and hope, too, +slowly ebbed away, as the boundaries of our land grew less and less: +behold this is the last wave but one or two, and then for a sad farewell +to name and freedom. Yet, surely the end of the world must come when we +are swept off the face of the earth. God waits long, they say, before He +avenges his own.' + +As he was speaking, Siur and Cissela came nearer to him, and Cissela, all +traces of her late terror gone from her face now, raising her lips to his +bended forehead, kissed him fondly, and said, with glowing face, + +'Father, how can I help our people? Do they want deaths? I will die. Do +they want happiness? I will live miserably through years and years, nor +ever pray for death.' + +Some hope or other seemed growing up in his heart, and showing through +his face; and he spoke again, putting back the hair from off her face, +and clasping it about with both his hands, while he stooped to kiss her. + +'God remember your mother, Cissela! Then it was no dream after all, but +true perhaps, as indeed it seemed at the time; but it must come quickly, +that woman's deliverance, or not at all. When was it that I heard that +old tale, that sounded even then true to my ears? for we have not been +punished for nought, my son; that is not God's way. It comes across my +memory somehow, mingled in a wonderful manner with the purple of the +pines on the hillside, with the fragrance of them borne from far towards +me; for know, my children, that in times past, long, long past now, we +did an evil deed, for our forefathers, who have been dead now, and +forgiven so long ago, once mad with rage at some defeat from their +enemies, fired a church, and burned therein many women who had fled +thither for refuge; and from that time a curse cleaves to us. Only they +say, that at the last we may be saved from utter destruction by a woman; +I know not. God grant it may be so.' + +Then she said, 'Father, brother, and you, Siur, come with me to the +chapel; I wish you to witness me make an oath.' + +Her face was pale, her lips were pale, her golden hair was pale; but not +pale, it seemed, from any sinking of blood, but from gathering of +intensest light from somewhere, her eyes perhaps, for they appeared to +burn inwardly. + +They followed the sweeping of her purple robe in silence through the low +heavy-beamed passages: they entered the little chapel, dimly lighted by +the moon that night, as it shone through one of the three arrow-slits of +windows at the east end. There was little wealth of marble there, I +trow; little time had those fighting men for stone-smoothing. Albeit, +one noted many semblances of flowers even in the dim half-light, and here +and there the faces of BRAVE men, roughly cut enough, but grand, because +the hand of the carver had followed his loving heart. Neither was there +gold wanting to the altar and its canopy; and above the low pillars of +the nave hung banners, taken from the foe by the men of that house, +gallant with gold and jewels. + +She walked up to the altar and took the blessed book of the Gospels from +the left side of it, then knelt in prayer for a moment or two, while the +three men stood behind her reverently. When she rose she made a sign to +them, and from their scabbards gleamed three swords in the moonlight; +then, while they held them aloft, and pointed toward the altar, she +opened the book at the page whereon was painted Christ the Lord dying on +the cross, pale against the gleaming gold: she said, in a firm voice, +'Christ God, who diedst for all men, so help me, as I refuse not life, +happiness, even honour, for this people whom I love.' + +Then she kissed the face so pale against the gold, and knelt again. + +But when she had risen, and before she could leave the space by the +altar, Siur had stepped up to her, and seized her hurriedly, folding both +his arms about her; she let herself be held there, her bosom against his; +then he held her away from him a little space, holding her by the arms +near the shoulder; then he took her hands and laid them across his +shoulders, so that now she held him. + +And they said nothing; what could they say? Do you know any word for +what they meant? + +And the father and brother stood by, looking quite awe-struck, more so +they seemed than by her solemn oath. Till Siur, raising his head from +where it lay, cried out aloud: + +'May God forgive me as I am true to her! hear you, father and brother?' + +Then said Cissela: 'May God help me in my need, as I am true to Siur.' + +And the others went, and they two were left standing there alone, with no +little awe over them, strange and shy as they had never yet been to each +other. Cissela shuddered, and said in a quick whisper: 'Siur, on your +knees! and pray that these oaths may never clash.' + +'Can they, Cissela?' he said. + +'O love,' she cried, 'you have loosed my hand; take it again, or I shall +die, Siur!' + +He took both her hands, he held them fast to his lips, to his forehead; +he said: 'No, God does not allow such things: truth does not lie; you are +truth; this need not be prayed for.' + +She said: 'Oh, forgive me! yet--yet this old chapel is damp and cold even +in the burning summer weather. O knight Siur, something strikes through +me; I pray you kneel and pray.' + +He looked steadily at her for a long time without answering, as if he +were trying once for all to become indeed one with her; then said: 'Yes, +it is possible; in no other way could you give up everything.' + +Then he took from off his finger a thin golden ring, and broke it in two, +and gave her the one half, saying: 'When will they come together?' + +Then within a while they left the chapel, and walked as in a dream +between the dazzling lights of the hall, where the knights sat now, and +between those lights sat down together, dreaming still the same dream +each of them; while all the knights shouted for Siur and Cissela. Even +if a man had spent all his life looking for sorrowful things, even if he +sought for them with all his heart and soul, and even though he had grown +grey in that quest, yet would he have found nothing in all the world, or +perhaps in all the stars either, so sorrowful as Cissela. + +They had accepted her sacrifice after long deliberation, they had arrayed +her in purple and scarlet, they had crowned her with gold wrought about +with jewels, they had spread abroad the veil of her golden hair; yet now, +as they led her forth in the midst of the band of knights, her brother +Eric holding fast her hand, each man felt like a murderer when he beheld +her face, whereon was no tear, wherein was no writhing of muscle, +twitching of nerve, wherein was no sorrow-mark of her own, but only the +sorrow-mark which God sent her, and which she _must_ perforce wear. + +Yet they had not caught eagerly at her offer, they had said at first +almost to a man: 'Nay, this thing shall not be, let us die altogether +rather than this.' Yet as they sat, and said this, to each man of the +council came floating dim memories of that curse of the burned women, and +its remedy; to many it ran rhythmically, an old song better known by the +music than the words, heard once and again, long ago, when the gusty wind +overmastered the chesnut-boughs and strewed the smooth sward with their +star-leaves. + +Withal came thoughts to each man, partly selfish, partly wise and just, +concerning his own wife and children, concerning children yet unborn; +thoughts too of the glory of the old name; all that had been suffered and +done that the glorious free land might yet be a nation. + +And the spirit of hope, never dead but sleeping only, woke up within +their hearts: 'We may yet be a people,' they said to themselves, 'if we +can but get breathing time.' + +And as they thought these things, and doubted, Siur rose up in the midst +of them and said: 'You are right in what you think, countrymen, and she +is right; she is altogether good and noble; send her forth.' + +Then, with one look of utter despair at her as she stood statue-like, he +left the council, lest he should fall down and die in the midst of them, +he said; yet he died not then, but lived for many years afterwards. + +But they rose from their seats, and when they were armed, and she royally +arrayed, they went with her, leading her through the dear streets, whence +you always saw the great pine-shadowed mountains; she went away from all +that was dear to her, to go and sit a crowned queen in the dreary marble +palace, whose outer walls rose right up from the weary-hearted sea. She +could not think, she durst not; she feared, if she did, that she would +curse her beauty, almost curse the name of love, curse Siur, though she +knew he was right, for not slaying her; she feared that she might curse +God. + +So she thought not at all, steeping her senses utterly in forgetfulness +of the happy past, destroying all anticipation of the future: yet, as +they left the city amid the tears of women, and fixed sorrowful gaze of +men, she turned round once, and stretched her arms out involuntarily, +like a dumb senseless thing, towards the place where she was born, and +where her life grew happier day by day, and where his arms first crept +round about her. + +She turned away and thought, but in a cold speculative manner, how it was +possible that she was bearing this sorrow; as she often before had +wondered, when slight things vexed her overmuch, how people had such +sorrows and lived, and almost doubted if the pain was so much greater in +great sorrows than in small troubles, or whether the nobleness only was +greater, the pain not sharper, but more lingering. + +Halfway toward the camp the king's people met her; and over the trampled +ground, where they had fought so fiercely but a little time before, they +spread breadth of golden cloth, that her feet might not touch the arms of +her dead countrymen, or their brave bodies. + +And so they came at last with many trumpet-blasts to the king's tent, who +stood at the door of it, to welcome his bride that was to be: a noble man +truly to look on, kindly, and genial-eyed; the red blood sprang up over +his face when she came near; and she looked back no more, but bowed +before him almost to the ground, and would have knelt, but that he caught +her in his arms and kissed her; she was pale no more now; and the king, +as he gazed delightedly at her, did not notice that sorrow-mark, which +was plain enough to her own people. + +So the trumpets sounded again one long peal that seemed to make all the +air reel and quiver, and the soldiers and lords shouted: 'Hurrah for the +Peace-Queen, Cissela.' + +* * * * * + +'Come, Harald,' said a beautiful golden-haired boy to one who was plainly +his younger brother, 'Come, and let us leave Robert here by the forge, +and show our lady-mother this beautiful thing. Sweet master armourer, +farewell.' + +'Are you going to the queen then?' said the armourer. + +'Yea,' said the boy, looking wonderingly at the strong craftsman's eager +face. + +'But, nay; let me look at you awhile longer, you remind me so much of one +I loved long ago in my own land. Stay awhile till your other brother +goes with you.' + +'Well, I will stay, and think of what you have been telling me; I do not +feel as it I should ever think of anything else for long together, as +long as I live.' + +So he sat down again on an old battered anvil, and seemed with his bright +eyes to be beholding something in the land of dreams. A gallant dream it +was he dreamed; for he saw himself with his brothers and friends about +him, seated on a throne, the justest king in all the earth, his people +the lovingest of all people: he saw the ambassadors of the restored +nation, that had been unjustly dealt with long ago; everywhere love, and +peace if possible, justice and truth at all events. + +Alas! he knew not that vengeance, so long delayed, must fall at last in +his life-time; he knew not that it takes longer to restore that whose +growth has been through age and age, than the few years of a life-time; +yet was the reality good, if not as good as the dream. + +Presently his twin-brother Robert woke him from that dream, calling out: +'Now, brother Svend, are we really ready; see here! but stop, kneel +first; there, now am I the Bishop.' + +And he pulled his brother down on to his knees, and put on his head, +where it fitted loosely enough now, hanging down from left to right, an +iron crown fantastically wrought, which he himself, having just finished +it, had taken out of the water, cool and dripping. + +Robert and Harald laughed loud when they saw the crown hanging all askew, +and the great drops rolling from it into Svend's eyes and down his +cheeks, looking like tears: not so Svend; he rose, holding the crown +level on his head, holding it back, so that it pressed against his brow +hard, and, first dashing the drops to right and left, caught his brother +by the hand, and said: + +'May I keep it, Robert? I shall wear it some day.' + +'Yea,' said the other; 'but it is a poor thing; better let Siur put it in +the furnace again and make it into sword hilts.' + +Thereupon they began to go, Svend holding the crown in his hand: but as +they were going, Siur called out: 'Yet will I sell my dagger at a price, +Prince Svend, even as you wished at first, rather than give it you for +nothing.' + +'Well, for what?' said Svend, somewhat shortly, for he thought Siur was +going back from his promise, which was ugly to him. + +'Nay, be not angry, prince,' said the armourer, 'only I pray you to +satisfy this whim of mine; it is the first favour I have asked of you: +will you ask the fair, noble lady, your mother, from Siur the smith, if +she is happy now?' + +'Willingly, sweet master Siur, if it pleases you; farewell.' + +And with happy young faces they went away; and when they were gone, Siur +from a secret place drew out various weapons and armour, and began to +work at them, having first drawn bolt and bar of his workshop carefully. + +Svend, with Harald and Robert his two brethren, went their ways to the +queen, and found her sitting alone in a fair court of the palace full of +flowers, with a marble cloister round about it; and when she saw them +coming, she rose up to meet them, her three fair sons. + +Truly as that right royal woman bent over them lovingly, there seemed +little need of Siur's question. + +So Svend showed her his dagger, but not the crown; and she asked many +questions concerning Siur the smith, about his way of talking and his +face, the colour of his hair even, till the boys wondered, she questioned +them so closely, with beaming eyes and glowing cheeks, so that Svend +thought he had never before seen his mother look so beautiful. + +Then Svend said: 'And, mother, don't be angry with Siur, will you? +because he sent a message to you by me.' + +'Angry!' and straightway her soul was wandering where her body could not +come, and for a moment or two she was living as before, with him close by +her, in the old mountain land. + +'Well, mother, he wanted me to ask you if you were happy now.' + +'Did he, Svend, this man with brown hair, grizzled as you say it is now? +Is his hair soft then, this Siur, going down on to his shoulders in +waves? and his eyes, do they glow steadily, as if lighted up from his +heart? and how does he speak? Did you not tell me that his words led +you, whether you would or no, into dreamland? Ah well! tell him I am +happy, but not so happy as we shall be, as we were. And so you, son +Robert, are getting to be quite a cunning smith; but do you think you +will ever beat Siur?' + +'Ah, mother, no,' he said, 'there is something with him that makes him +seem quite infinitely beyond all other workmen I ever heard of.' + +Some memory coming from that dreamland smote upon her heart more than the +others; she blushed like a young girl, and said hesitatingly: + +'Does he work with his left hand, son Robert; for I have heard that some +men do so?' But in her heart she remembered how once, long ago in the +old mountain country, in her father's house, some one had said that only +men who were born so, could do cunningly with the left hand; and how +Siur, then quite a boy, had said, 'Well, I will try': and how, in a month +or two, he had come to her with an armlet of silver, very curiously +wrought, which he had done with his own left hand. + +So Robert said: 'Yea, mother, he works with his left hand almost as much +as with his right, and sometimes I have seen him change the hammer +suddenly from his right hand to his left, with a kind of half smile, as +one who would say, 'Cannot I then?' and this more when he does smith's +work in metal than when he works in marble; and once I heard him say when +he did so, 'I wonder where my first left hand work is; ah! I bide my +time.' I wonder also, mother, what he meant by that.' + +She answered no word, but shook her arm free from its broad sleeve, and +something glittered on it, near her wrist, something wrought out of +silver set with quaint and uncouthly-cut stones of little value. + +* * * * * + +In the council-chamber, among the lords, sat Svend with his six brethren; +he chief of all in the wielding of sword or axe, in the government of +people, in drawing the love of men and women to him; perfect in face and +body, in wisdom and strength was Svend: next to him sat Robert, cunning +in working of marble, or wood, or brass; all things could he make to look +as if they lived, from the sweep of an angel's wings down to the slipping +of a little field-mouse from under the sheaves in the harvest-time. Then +there was Harald, who knew concerning all the stars of heaven and flowers +of earth: Richard, who drew men's hearts from their bodies, with the +words that swung to and fro in his glorious rhymes: William, to whom the +air of heaven seemed a servant when the harp-strings quivered underneath +his fingers: there were the two sailor-brothers, who the year before, +young though they were, had come back from a long, perilous voyage, with +news of an island they had found long and long away to the west, larger +than any that this people knew of, but very fair and good, though +uninhabited. + +But now over all this noble brotherhood, with its various gifts hung one +cloud of sorrow; their mother, the Peace-Queen Cissela was dead, she who +had taught them truth and nobleness so well; she was never to see the +beginning of the end that they would work; truly it seemed sad. + +There sat the seven brothers in the council chamber, waiting for the +king, speaking no word, only thinking drearily; and under the pavement of +the great church Cissela lay, and by the side of her tomb stood two men, +old men both, Valdemar the king, and Siur. + +So the king, after that he had gazed awhile on the carven face of her he +had loved well, said at last: + +'And now, Sir Carver, must you carve me also to lie there.' And he +pointed to the vacant space by the side of the fair alabaster figure. + +'O king,' said Siur, 'except for a very few strokes on steel, I have done +work now, having carved the queen there; I cannot do this thing for you.' + +What was it sent a sharp pang of bitterest suspicion through the very +heart of the poor old man? he looked steadfastly at him for a moment or +two, as if he would know all secrets; he could not, he had not strength +of life enough to get to the bottom of things; doubt vanished soon from +his heart and his face under Siur's pitying gaze; he said, 'Then perhaps +I shall be my own statue,' and therewithal he sat down on the edge of the +low marble tomb, and laid his right arm across her breast; he fixed his +eyes on the eastern belt of windows, and sat quite motionless and silent; +and he never knew that she loved him not. + +But Siur, when he had gazed at him for awhile, stole away quietly, as we +do when we fear to waken a sleeper; and the king never turned his head, +but still sat there, never moving, scarce breathing, it seemed. + +Siur stood in his own great hall (for his house was large), he stood +before the dais, and saw a fair sight, the work of his own hands. + +For, fronting him, against the wall were seven thrones, and behind them a +cloth of samite of purple wrought with golden stars, and barred across +from right to left with long bars of silver and crimson, and edged below +with melancholy, fading green, like a September sunset; and opposite each +throne was a glittering suit of armour wrought wonderfully in bright +steel, except that on the breast of each suit was a face worked +marvellously in enamel, the face of Cissela in a glory of golden hair; +and the glory of that gold spread away from the breast on all sides, and +ran cunningly along with the steel rings, in such a way as it is hard +even to imagine: moreover, on the crest of each helm was wrought the +phoenix, the never-dying bird, the only creature that knows the sun; and +by each suit lay a gleaming sword terrible to look at, steel from pommel +to point, but wrought along the blade in burnished gold that outflashed +the gleam of the steel, was written in fantastic letters the word +'Westward.' + +So Siur gazed till he heard footsteps coming; then he turned to meet +them. And Svend and his brethren sat silent in the council chamber, till +they heard a great noise and clamour of the people arise through all the +streets; and then they rose to see what it might be. Meanwhile on the +low marble tomb, under the dim sweeping vault sat, or rather lay, the +king; for, though his right arm still lay over her breast, his head had +fallen forward, and rested now on the shoulder of the marble queen. There +he lay, with strange confusion of his scarlet, gold-wrought robes; +silent, motionless, and dead. The seven brethren stood together on a +marble terrace of the royal palace, that was dotted about on the baluster +of it with white statues: they were helmetted, and armed to the teeth, +only over their armour great black cloaks were thrown. + +Now the whole great terrace was a-sway with the crowd of nobles and +princes, and others that were neither nobles or princes, but true men +only; and these were helmetted and wrapped in black cloaks even as the +princes were, only the crests of the princes' helms were wrought +wonderfully with that bird, the phoenix, all flaming with new power, +dying because its old body is not strong enough for its new-found power: +and those on that terrace who were unarmed had anxious faces, some +fearful, some stormy with Devil's rage at disappointment; but among the +faces of those helmed ones, though here and there you might see a pale +face, there was no fear or rage, scarcely even any anxiety, but calm, +brave joy seemed to be on all. + +Above the heads of all men on that terrace shone out Svend's brave face, +the golden hair flowing from out of his helmet: a smile of quiet +confidence overflowing from his mighty heart, in the depths of which it +was dwelling, just showed a very little on his eyes and lips. + +While all the vast square, and all the windows and roofs even of the +houses over against the palace, were alive with an innumerable sea of +troubled raging faces, showing white, upturned from the under-sea of +their many-coloured raiment; the murmur from them was like the sough of +the first tempest-wind among the pines, and the gleam of spears here and +there like the last few gleams of the sun through the woods when the +black thunder-clouds come up over all, soon to be shone through, those +woods, by the gleam of the deep lightning. + +Also sometimes the murmur would swell, and from the heart of it would +come a fierce, hoarse, tearing, shattering roar, strangely discordant, of +'War! War! give us war, O king!' + +Then Svend stepping forward, his arms hidden under his long cloak as they +hung down quietly, the smile on his face broadening somewhat, sent from +his chest a mighty, effortless voice over all the raging: + +'Hear, O ye people! War with all that is ugly and base; peace with all +that is fair and good.--NO WAR with my brother's people.' + +Just then one of those unhelmetted, creeping round about stealthily to +the place where Svend stood, lifted his arm and smote at him with a +dagger; whereupon Svend clearing his right arm from his cloak with his +left, lifted up his glittering right hand, and the traitor fell to the +earth groaning with a broken jaw, for Svend had smitten him on the mouth +a backward blow with his open hand. + +One shouted from the crowd, 'Ay, murderer Svend, slay our good nobles, as +you poisoned the king your father, that you and your false brethren might +oppress us with the memory of that Devil's witch, your mother!' + +The smile left Svend's face and heart now, he looked very stern as he +said: + +'Hear, O ye people! In years past when I was a boy my dream of dreams +was ever this, how I should make you good, and because good, happy, when +I should become king over you; but as year by year passed I saw my dream +flitting; the deep colours of it changed, faded, grew grey in the light +of coming manhood; nevertheless, God be my witness, that I have ever +striven to make you just and true, hoping against hope continually; and I +had even determined to bear everything and stay with you, even though you +should remain unjust and liars, for the sake of the few who really love +me; but now, seeing that God has made you mad, and that his vengeance +will speedily fall, take heed how you cast out from you all that is good +and true-hearted! Once more--which choose you--Peace or War?' + +Between the good and the base, in the midst of the passionate faces and +changing colours stood the great terrace, cold, and calm, and white, with +its changeless statues; and for a while there was silence. + +Broken through at last by a yell, and the sharp whirr of arrows, and the +cling, clang, from the armour of the terrace as Prince Harald staggered +through unhurt, struck by the broad point on the helmet. + +'What, War?' shouted Svend wrathfully, and his voice sounded like a clap +of thunder following the lightning flash when a tower is struck. 'What! +war? swords for Svend! round about the king, good men and true! Sons of +the golden-haired, show these men WAR.' + +As he spoke he let his black cloak fall, and up from their sheaths sprang +seven swords, steel from pommel to point only; on the blades of them in +fantastic letters of gold, shone the word WESTWARD. + +Then all the terrace gleamed with steel, and amid the hurtling of stones +and whizz of arrows they began to go westward. + +* * * * * + +The streets ran with blood, the air was filled with groans and curses, +the low waves nearest the granite pier were edged with blood, because +they first caught the drippings of the blood. + +Then those of the people who durst stay on the pier saw the ships of +Svend's little fleet leaving one by one; for he had taken aboard those +ten ships whosoever had prayed to go, even at the last moment, wounded, +or dying even; better so, for in their last moments came thoughts of good +things to many of them, and it was good to be among the true. + +But those haughty ones left behind, sullen and untamed, but with a +horrible indefinable dread on them that was worse than death, or mere +pain, howsoever fierce--these saw all the ships go out of the harbour +merrily with swelling sail and dashing oar, and with joyous singing of +those aboard; and Svend's was the last of all. + +Whom they saw kneel down on the deck unhelmed, then all sheathed their +swords that were about him; and the Prince Robert took from Svend's hand +an iron crown fantastically wrought, and placed it on his head as he +knelt; then he continued kneeling still, till, as the ship drew further +and further away from the harbour, all things aboard of her became +indistinct. + +And they never saw Svend and his brethren again. + +* * * * * + +Here ends what William the Englishman wrote; but afterwards (in the night- +time) he found the book of a certain chronicler which saith: + +'In the spring-time, in May, the 550_th_ year from the death of Svend the +wonderful king, the good knights, sailing due eastward, came to a harbour +of a land they knew not: wherein they saw many goodly ships, but of a +strange fashion like the ships of the ancients, and destitute of any +mariners: besides they saw no beacons for the guidance of seamen, nor was +there any sound of bells or singing, though the city was vast, with many +goodly towers and palaces. So when they landed they found that which is +hardly to be believed but which is nevertheless true: for about the quays +and about the streets lay many people dead, or stood, but quite without +motion, and they were all white or about the colour of new-hewn +freestone, yet were they not statues but real men, for they had, some of +them, ghastly wounds which showed their entrails, and the structure of +their flesh, and veins, and bones. + +'Moreover the streets were red and wet with blood, and the harbour waves +were red with it, because it dipped in great drops slowly from the quays. + +'Then when the good knights saw this, they doubted not but that it was a +fearful punishment on this people for sins of theirs; thereupon they +entered into a church of that city and prayed God to pardon them; +afterwards, going back to their ships, sailed away marvelling. + +'And I John who wrote this history saw all this with mine own eyes.' + + + + +THE CHURCHES OF NORTH FRANCE + + +I--SHADOWS OF AMIENS + + +Not long ago I saw for the first time some of the churches of North +France; still more recently I saw them for the second time; and, +remembering the love I have for them and the longing that was in me to +see them, during the time that came between the first and second visit, I +thought I should like to tell people of some of those things I felt when +I was there;--there among those mighty tombs of the long-dead ages. + +And I thought that even if I could say nothing else about these grand +churches, I could at least tell men how much I loved them; so that though +they might laugh at me for my foolish and confused words, they might yet +be moved to see what there was that made me speak my love, though I could +give no reason for it. + +For I will say here that I think those same churches of North France the +grandest, the most beautiful, the kindest and most loving of all the +buildings that the earth has ever borne; and, thinking of their past-away +builders, can I see through them, very faintly, dimly, some little of the +mediaeval times, else dead, and gone from me for ever--voiceless for +ever. + +And those same builders, still surely living, still real men, and capable +of receiving love, I love no less than the great men, poets and painters +and such like, who are on earth now, no less than my breathing friends +whom I can see looking kindly on me now. Ah! do I not love them with +just cause, who certainly loved me, thinking of me sometimes between the +strokes of their chisels; and for this love of all men that they had, and +moreover for the great love of God, which they certainly had too; for +this, and for this work of theirs, the upraising of the great cathedral +front with its beating heart of the thoughts of men, wrought into the +leaves and flowers of the fair earth; wrought into the faces of good men +and true, fighters against the wrong, of angels who upheld them, of God +who rules all things; wrought through the lapse of years, and years, and +years, by the dint of chisel, and stroke of hammer, into stories of life +and death, the second life, the second death, stories of God's dealing in +love and wrath with the nations of the earth, stories of the faith and +love of man that dies not: for their love, and the deeds through which it +worked, I think they will not lose their reward. + +So I will say what I can of their works, and I have to speak of Amiens +first, and how it seemed to me in the hot August weather. + +I know how wonderful it would look, if you were to mount one of the +steeples of the town, or were even to mount up to the roof of one of the +houses westward of the cathedral; for it rises up from the ground, grey +from the paving of the street, the cavernous porches of the west front +opening wide, and marvellous with the shadows of the carving you can only +guess at; and above stand the kings, and above that you would see the +twined mystery of the great flamboyant rose window with its thousand +openings, and the shadows of the flower-work carved round it, then the +grey towers and gable, grey against the blue of the August sky, and +behind them all, rising high into the quivering air, the tall spire over +the crossing. + +But from the hot Place Royale here with its stunted pollard acacias, and +statue of some one, I know not whom, but some citizen of Amiens I +suppose, you can see nothing but the graceful spire; it is of wood +covered over with lead, and was built quite at the end of the flamboyant +times. Once it was gilt all over, and used to shine out there, getting +duller and duller, as the bad years grew worse and worse; but the gold is +all gone now; when it finally disappeared I know not, but perhaps it was +in 1771, when the chapter got them the inside of their cathedral +whitewashed from vaulting to pavement. + +The spire has two octagonal stages above the roof, formed of trefoiled +arches, and slim buttresses capped by leaded figures; from these stages +the sloping spire springs with crocketted ribs at the angles, the lead +being arranged in a quaint herring-bone pattern; at the base of the spire +too is a crown of open-work and figures, making a third stage; finally, +near the top of the spire the crockets swell, till you come to the rose +that holds the great spire-cross of metal-work, such metal-work as the +French alone knew how to make; it is all beautiful, though so late. + +From one of the streets leading out of the Place Royale you can see the +cathedral, and as you come nearer you see that it is clear enough of +houses or such like things; the great apse rises over you, with its belt +of eastern chapels; first the long slim windows of these chapels, which +are each of them little apses, the Lady Chapel projecting a good way +beyond the rest, and then, running under the cornice of the chapels and +outer aisles all round the church, a cornice of great noble leaves; then +the parapets in changing flamboyant patterns, then the conical roofs of +the chapels hiding the exterior tracery of the triforium, then the great +clerestory windows, very long, of four lights, and stilted, the tracery +beginning a long way below the springing of their arches; and the +buttresses are so thick, and their arms spread so here, that each of the +clerestory windows looks down its own space between them, as if between +walls: above the windows rise their canopies running through the parapet, +and above all the great mountainous roof, and all below it, and around +the windows and walls of the choir and apse, stand the mighty army of the +buttresses, holding up the weight of the stone roof within with their +strong arms for ever. + +We go round under their shadows, past the sacristies, past the southern +transept, only glancing just now at the sculpture there, past the chapels +of the nave, and enter the church by the small door hard by the west +front, with that figure of huge St. Christopher quite close over our +heads; thereby we enter the church, as I said, and are in its western +bay. I think I felt inclined to shout when I first entered Amiens +cathedral; it is so free and vast and noble, I did not feel in the least +awe-struck, or humbled by its size and grandeur. I have not often felt +thus when looking on architecture, but have felt, at all events, at +first, intense exultation at the beauty of it; that, and a certain kind +of satisfaction in looking on the geometrical tracery of the windows, on +the sweeping of the huge arches, were, I think, my first feelings in +Amiens Cathedral. + +We go down the nave, glancing the while at the traceried windows of the +chapels, which are later than the windows above them; we come to the +transepts, and from either side the stained glass, in their huge windows, +burns out on us; and, then, first we begin to appreciate somewhat the +scale of the church, by looking up, along the ropes hanging from the +vaulting to the pavement, for the tolling of the bells in the spire. + +There is a hideous renaissance screen, of solid stone or marble, between +choir and nave, with more hideous iron gates to it, through which, +however, we, walking up the choir steps, can look and see the gorgeous +carving of the canopied stalls; and then, alas! 'the concentration of +flattened sacks, rising forty feet above the altar;' but, above that, the +belt of the apse windows, rich with sweet mellowed stained glass, under +the dome-like roof. + +The stalls in the choir are very rich, as people know, carved in wood, in +the early sixteenth century, with high twisted canopies, and histories, +from the Old Testament mostly, wrought about them. The history of Joseph +I remember best among these. Some of the scenes in it I thought very +delightful; the story told in such a gloriously quaint, straightforward +manner. Pharaoh's dream, how splendid that was! the king lying asleep on +his elbow, and the kine coming up to him in two companies. I think the +lean kine was about the best bit of wood-carving I have seen yet. There +they were, a writhing heap, crushing and crowding one another, drooping +heads and starting eyes, and strange angular bodies; altogether the most +wonderful symbol of famine ever conceived. I never fairly understood +Pharaoh's dream till I saw the stalls at Amiens. + +There is nothing else to see in the choir; all the rest of the fittings +being as bad as possible. So we will go out again, and walk round the +choir-aisles. The screen round the choir is solid, the upper part of it +carved (in the flamboyant times), with the history of St. John the +Baptist, on the north side; with that of St. Firmin on the south. I +remember very little of the sculptures relative to St. John, but I know +that I did not like them much. Those about St. Firmin, who evangelised +Picardy, I remember much better, and some of them especially I thought +very beautiful; they are painted too, and at any rate one cannot help +looking at them. + +I do not remember, in the least, the order in which they come, but some +of them are fixed well enough in my memory; and, principally, a bishop, +(St. Firmin), preaching, rising out of a pulpit from the midst of the +crowd, in his jewelled cope and mitre, and with a beautiful sweet face. +Then another, the baptising of the king and his lords, was very quaint +and lifelike. I remember, too, something about the finding of St. +Firmin's relics, and the translation of the same relics when found; the +many bishops, with their earnest faces, in the first, and the priests, +bearing the reliquaries, in the second; with their long vestments girded +at the waist and falling over their feet, painted too, in light colours, +with golden flowers on them. I wish I remembered these carvings better, +I liked them so much. Just about this place, in the lower part of the +screen, I remember the tomb of a priest, very gorgeous, with gold and +colours; he lay in a deep niche, under a broad segmental arch, which is +painted with angels; and, outside this niche, angels were drawing back +painted curtains, I am sorry to say. But the priest lay there in cope +and alb, and the gentle colour lay over him, as his calm face gazed ever +at the angels painted in his resting place. I have dim recollection of +seeing, when I was at Amiens before, not this last time, a tomb, which I +liked much, a bishop, I think it was, lying under a small round arch, but +I forget the figure now. This was in a chapel on the other side of the +choir. It is very hard to describe the interior of a great church like +this, especially since the whitewash (applied, as I said, on this scale +in 1771) lies on everything so; before that time, some book says, the +church was painted from end to end with patterns of flowers and stars, +and histories: think--I might have been able to say something about it +then, with that solemn glow of colour all about me, as I walked there +from sunrise to sunset; and yet, perhaps, it would have filled my heart +too full for speaking, all that beauty; I know not. + +Up into the triforium, and other galleries, sometimes in the church, +sometimes in narrow passages of close-fitting stone, sometimes out in the +open air; up into the forest of beams between the slates and the real +stone roof: one can look down through a hole in the vaulting and see the +people walking and praying on the pavement below, looking very small from +that height, and strangely foreshortened. A strange sense of oppression +came over me at that time, when, as we were in one of the galleries of +the west front, we looked into the church, and found the vaulting but a +foot or two (or it seemed so) above our heads; also, while I was in the +galleries, now out of the church, now in it, the canons had begun to sing +complines, and the sound of their singing floated dimly up the winding +stair-cases and half-shut doors. + +The sun was setting when we were in the roof, and a beam of it, striking +through the small window up in the gable, fell in blood-red spots on the +beams of the great dim roof. We came out from the roof on to the parapet +in the blaze of the sun, and then going to the crossing, mounted as high +as we could into the spire, and stood there a while looking down on the +beautiful country, with its many water-meadows, and feathering trees. + +And here let me say something about the way in which I have taken this +description upon me; for I did not write it at Amiens; moreover, if I had +described it from the bare reminiscences of the church, I should have +been able to say little enough about the most interesting part of all, +the sculptures, namely; so, though remembering well enough the general +effect of the whole, and, very distinctly, statues and faces, nay, leaves +and flower-knots, here and there; yet, the external sculpture I am +describing as well as I can from such photographs as I have; and these, +as everybody knows, though very distinct and faithful, when they show +anything at all, yet, in some places, where the shadows are deep, show +simply nothing. They tell me, too, nothing whatever of the colour of the +building; in fact, their brown and yellow is as unlike as possible to the +grey of Amiens. So, for the facts of form, I have to look at my +photographs; for facts of colour I have to try and remember the day or +two I spent at Amiens, and the reference to the former has considerably +dulled my memory of the latter. I have something else to say, too; it +will seem considerably ridiculous, no doubt, to many people who are well +acquainted with the iconography of the French churches, when I talk about +the stories of some of the carvings; both from my want of knowledge as to +their meaning, and also from my telling people things which everybody may +be supposed to know; for which I pray forgiveness, and so go on to speak +of the carvings about the south transept door. + +It is divided in the midst by a pillar, whereon stands the Virgin, +holding our Lord. She is crowned, and has a smile upon her face now for +ever; and in the canopy above her head are three angels, bearing up the +aureole there; and about these angels, and the aureole and head of the +Virgin, there is still some gold and vermilion left. The Holy Child, +held in His mother's left arm, is draped from His throat to His feet, and +between His hands He holds the orb of the world. About on a level with +the Virgin, along the sides of the doorway, are four figures on each +side, the innermost one on either side being an angel holding a censer; +the others are ecclesiastics, and (some book says) benefactors to the +church. They have solemn faces, stern, with firm close-set lips, and +eyes deep-set under their brows, almost frowning, and all but one or two +are beardless, though evidently not young; the square door valves are +carved with deep-twined leaf-mouldings, and the capitals of the +door-shafts are carved with varying knots of leaves and flowers. Above +the Virgin, up in the tympanum of the doorway, are carved the Twelve +Apostles, divided into two bands of six, by the canopy over the Virgin's +head. They are standing in groups of two, but I do not know for certain +which they are, except, I think, two, St. James and St. John; the two +first in the eastern division. James has the pilgrim's hat and staff, +and John is the only beardless one among them; his face is rather sad, +and exceedingly lovely, as, indeed are all those faces, being somewhat +alike; and all, in some degree like the type of face received as the +likeness of Christ himself. They have all long hair falling in rippled +bands on each side of their faces, on to their shoulders. Their drapery, +too, is lovely; they are very beautiful and solemn. Above their heads +runs a cornice of trefoiled arches, one arch over the head of each +apostle; from out of the deep shade of the trefoils flashes a grand leaf +cornice, one leaf again to each apostle; and so we come to the next +compartment, which contains three scenes from the life of St. Honore, an +early French bishop. The first scene is, I think, the election of a +bishop, the monks or priests talking the matter over in chapter first, +then going to tell the bishop-elect. Gloriously-draped figures the monks +are, with genial faces full of good wisdom, drawn into quaint expressions +by the joy of argument. This one old, and has seen much of the world; he +is trying, I think, to get his objections answered by the young man +there, who is talking to him so earnestly; he is listening, with a half- +smile on his face, as if he had made up his mind, after all. These other +two, one very energetic indeed, with his head and shoulders swung back a +little, and his right arm forward, and the other listening to him, and +but half-convinced yet. Then the two next, turning to go with him who is +bearing to the new-chosen bishop the book of the Gospels and pastoral +staff; they look satisfied and happy. Then comes he with the pastoral +staff and Gospels; then, finally, the man who is announcing the news to +the bishop himself, the most beautiful figure in the whole scene, +perhaps, in the whole doorway; he is stooping down, lovingly, to the man +they have chosen, with his left hand laid on his arm, and his long robe +falls to his feet from his shoulder all along his left side, moulded a +little to the shape of his body, but falling heavily and with scarce a +fold in it, to the ground: the chosen one sitting there, with his book +held between his two hands, looks up to him with his brave face, and he +will be bishop, and rule well, I think. So, by the next scene he is +bishop, I suppose, and is sitting there ordering the building of a +church; for he is sitting under a trefoiled canopy, with his mitre on his +head, his right hand on a reading-desk by his side. His book is lying +open, his head turned toward what is going forwards. It is a splendid +head and face. In the photograph I have of this subject, the mitre, +short and simple, is in full light but for a little touch of shade on one +side; the face is shaded, but the crown of short crisp curls hanging over +it, about half in light, half in shade. Beyond the trefoil canopy comes +a wood of quaint conventional trees, full of stone, with a man working at +it with a long pick: I cannot see his face, as it is altogether in shade, +the light falling on his head however. He is dressed in a long robe, +quite down to his feet, not a very convenient dress, one would think, for +working in. I like the trees here very much; they are meant for +hawthorns and oaks. There are a very few leaves on each tree, but at the +top they are all twisted about, and are thicker, as if the wind were +blowing them. The little capitals of the canopy, under which the bishop +is sitting, are very delightful, and are common enough in larger work of +this time (thirteenth century) in France. Four bunches of leaves spring +from long stiff stalks, and support the square abacus, one under each +corner. The next scene, in the division above, is some miracle or other, +which took place at mass, it seems. The bishop is saying mass before an +altar; behind him are four assistants; and, as the bishop stands there +with his hand raised, a hand coming from somewhere by the altar, holds +down towards him the consecrated wafer. The thing is gloriously carved, +whatever it is. The assistant immediately behind the bishop, holding in +his hands a candle-stick, somewhat slantwise towards the altar, is, +especially in the drapery, one of the most beautiful in the upper part of +this tympanum; his head is a little bent, and the line made from the back +of it over the heavy hair, down along the heavy-swinging robe, is very +beautiful. + +The next scene is the shrine of some Saint. This same bishop, I suppose, +dead now, after all his building and ruling, and hard fighting, possibly, +with the powers that be; often to be fought with righteously in those +times. Over the shrine sits the effigy of the bishop, with his hand +raised to bless. On the western side are two worshippers; on the +eastern, a blind and a deaf man are being healed, by the touch of the +dead bishop's robe. The deaf man is leaning forward, and the servant of +the shrine holds to his ear the bishop's robe. The deaf man has a very +deaf face, not very anxious though; not even showing very much hope, but +faithful only. The blind one is coming up behind him with a crutch in +his right hand, and led by a dog; the face was either in its first +estate, very ugly and crabbed, or by the action of the weather or some +such thing, has been changed so. + +So the bishop being dead and miracles being wrought at his tomb, in the +division above comes the translation of his remains; a long procession +taking up the whole of the division, which is shorter than the others, +however, being higher up towards the top of the arch. An acolyte bearing +a cross, heads the procession, then two choristers; then priests bearing +relics and books; long vestments they have, and stoles crossed underneath +their girdles; then comes the reliquary borne by one at each end, the two +finest figures in this division, the first especially; his head raised +and his body leaning forward to the weight of the reliquary, as people +nearly always do walk when they carry burdens and are going slowly; which +this procession certainly is doing, for some of the figures are even +turning round. Three men are kneeling or bending down beneath the shrine +as it passes; cripples, they are, all three have beautiful faces, the one +who is apparently the worst cripple of the three, (his legs and feet are +horribly twisted), has especially a wonderfully delicate face, timid and +shrinking, though faithful: behind the shrine come the people, walking +slowly together with reverent faces; a woman with a little child holding +her hand are the last figures in this history of St. Honore: they both +have their faces turned full south, the woman has not a beautiful face, +but a happy good-natured genial one. + +The cornice below this division is of plain round-headed trefoils very +wide, and the spandrel of each arch is pierced with a small round +trefoil, very sharply cut, looking, in fact, as if it were cut with a +punch: this cornice, simple though it is, I think, very beautiful, and in +my photograph the broad trefoils of it throw sharp black shadows on the +stone behind the worshipping figures, and square-cut altars. + +In the triangular space at the top of the arch is a representation of our +Lord on the cross; St. Mary and St. John standing on either side of him, +and, kneeling on one knee under the sloping sides of the arch, two +angels, one on each side. I very much wish I could say something more +about this piece of carving than I can do, because it seems to me that +the French thirteenth century sculptors failed less in their +representations of the crucifixion than almost any set of artists; though +it was certainly an easier thing to do in stone than on canvas, +especially in such a case as this where the representation is so highly +abstract; nevertheless, I wish I could say something more about it; +failing which, I will say something about my photograph of it. + +I cannot see the Virgin's face at all, it is in the shade so much; St. +John's I cannot see very well; I do not think it is a remarkable face, +though there is sweet expression in it; our Lord's face is very grand and +solemn, as fine as I remember seeing it anywhere in sculpture. The +shadow of the body hanging on the cross there, falls strangely and +weirdly on the stone behind--both the kneeling angels (who, by the way, +are holding censers), are beautiful. Did I say above that one of the +faces of the twelve Apostles was the most beautiful in the tympanum? if I +did, I retract that saying, certainly, looking on the westernmost of +these two angels. I keep using the word beautiful so often that I feel +half inclined to apologise for it; but I cannot help it, though it is +often quite inadequate to express the loveliness of some of the figures +carved here; and so it happens surely with the face of this angel. The +face is not of a man, I should think; it is rather like a very fair +woman's face; but fairer than any woman's face I ever saw or thought of: +it is in profile and easy to be seen in the photograph, though somewhat +in the shade. I am utterly at a loss how to describe it, or to give any +idea of the exquisite lines of the cheek and the rippled hair sweeping +back from it, just faintly touched by the light from the south-east. I +cannot say more about it. So I have gone through the carvings in the +lower part of this doorway, and those of the tympanum. Now, besides +these, all the arching-over of the door is filled with figures under +canopies, about which I can say little, partly from want of adequate +photographs, partly from ignorance of their import. + +But the first of the cavettos wherein these figures are, is at any rate +filled with figures of angels, some swinging censers, some bearing +crowns, and other things which I cannot distinguish. Most of the niches +in the next cavetto seem to hold subjects; but the square camera of the +photographer clips some, many others are in shadow, in fact the niches +throw heavy shadows over the faces of nearly all; and without the +photograph I remember nothing but much fretted grey stone above the line +of the capitals of the doorway shafts; grey stone with something carved +in it, and the swallows flying in and out of it. Yet now there are three +niches I can say something about at all events. A stately figure with a +king's crown on his head, and hair falling in three waves over his +shoulders, a very kingly face looking straight onward; a great jewelled +collar falling heavily to his elbows: his right hand holding a heavy +sceptre formed of many budding flowers, and his left just touching in +front the folds of his raiment that falls heavily, very heavily to the +ground over his feet. Saul, King of Israel.--A bending figure with +covered head, pouring, with his right hand, oil on the head of a youth, +not a child plainly, but dwarfed to a young child's stature before the +bending of the solemn figure with the covered head. Samuel anointing +David.--A king again, with face hidden in deep shade, holding a naked +sword in his right hand, and a living infant in the other; and two women +before him, one with a mocking smile on her face, the other with her head +turned up in passionate entreaty, grown women they are plainly, but +dwarfed to the stature of young girls before the hidden face of the King. +The judgment of Solomon.--An old man with drawn sword in right hand, with +left hand on a fair youth dwarfed, though no child, to the stature of a +child; the old man's head is turned somewhat towards the presence of an +angel behind him, who points downward to something unseen. Abraham's +sacrifice of Isaac.--Noah too, working diligently that the ark may be +finished before the flood comes.--Adam tilling the ground, and clothed in +the skins of beasts.--There is Jacob's stolen blessing, that was yet in +some sort to be a blessing though it was stolen.--There is old Jacob +whose pilgrimage is just finished now, after all his doings and +sufferings, all those deceits inflicted upon him, that made him remember, +perforce, the lie he said and acted long ago,--old Jacob blessing the +sons of Joseph. And many more which I remember not, know not, mingled +too with other things which I dimly see have to do with the daily +occupations of the men who lived in the dim, far-off thirteenth century. + +I remember as I came out by the north door of the west front, how +tremendous the porches seemed to me, which impression of greatness and +solemnity, the photographs, square-cut and brown-coloured do not keep at +all; still however I can recall whenever I please the wonder I felt +before that great triple porch; I remember best in this way the porch +into which I first entered, namely the northernmost, probably because I +saw most of it, coming in and out often by it, yet perhaps the fact that +I have seen no photograph of this doorway somewhat assists the +impression. + +Yet I do not remember even of this anything more than the fact that the +tympanum represented the life and death of some early French bishop; it +seemed very interesting. I remember, too, that in the door-jambs were +standing figures of bishops in two long rows, their mitred heads bowed +forward solemnly, and I remember nothing further. + +Concerning the southernmost porch of the west front.--The doorway of this +porch also has on the centre pillar of it a statue of the Virgin +standing, holding the Divine Child in her arms. Both the faces of the +Virgin Mother and of her Son, are very beautiful; I like them much better +than those in the south transept already spoken of; indeed I think them +the grandest of all the faces of the Madonna and Child that I have seen +carved by the French architects. I have seen many, the faces of which I +do not like, though the drapery is always beautiful; their faces I do not +like at all events, as faces of the Virgin and Child, though as faces of +other people even if not beautiful they would be interesting. The Child +is, as in the transept, draped down to the feet; draped too, how +exquisitely I know not how to say. His right arm and hand is stretched +out across His mother's breast, His left hangs down so that His wrist as +His hand is a little curved upwards, rests upon His knee; His mother +holds Him slightly with her left arm, with her right she holds a fold of +her robe on which His feet rest. His figure is not by any means that of +an infant, for it is slim and slender, too slender for even a young boy, +yet too soft, too much rounded for a youth, and the head also is too +large; I suppose some people would object to this way of carving One who +is supposed to be an infant; yet I have no doubt that the old sculptors +were right in doing so, and to my help in this matter comes the +remembrance of Ruskin's answer to what Lord Lindsay says concerning the +inability of Giotto and his school to paint young children: for he says +that it might very well happen that Giotto could paint children, but yet +did not choose to in this instance, (the Presentation of the Virgin), for +the sake of the much greater dignity to be obtained by using the more +fully developed figure and face; {156} and surely, whatever could be said +about Giotto's paintings, no one who was at all acquainted with Early +French sculpture could doubt that the carvers of this figure here, +_could_ have carved an infant if they had thought fit so to do, men who +again and again grasped eagerly common everyday things when in any way +they would tell their story. To return to the statues themselves. The +face of the young Christ is of the same character as His figure, such a +face as Elizabeth Browning tells of, the face of One 'who never sinned or +smiled'; at least if the sculptor fell below his ideal somewhat, yet for +all that, through that face which he failed in a little, we can see when +we look, that his ideal was such an one. The Virgin's face is calm and +very sweet, full of rest,--indeed the two figures are very full of rest; +everything about them expresses it from the broad forehead of the Virgin, +to the resting of the feet of the Child (who is almost self-balanced) in +the fold of the robe that she holds gently, to the falling of the quiet +lines of her robe over her feet, to the resting of its folds between +them. + +The square heads of the door-valves, and a flat moulding above them which +runs up also into the first division of the tympanum, is covered with +faintly cut diaper-work of four-leaved flowers. + +Along the jambs of the doorway on the north side stand six kings, all +bearded men but one, who is young apparently; I do not know who these +are, but think they must be French kings; one, the farthest toward the +outside of the porch, has taken his crown off, and holds it in his hand: +the figures on the other side of the door-jambs are invisible in the +photograph except one, the nearest to the door, young, sad, and earnest +to look at--I know not who he is. Five figures outside the porch, and on +the angles of the door-jambs, are I suppose prophets, perhaps those who +have prophesied of the birth of our Lord, as this door is apportioned to +the Virgin. + +The first division of the tympanum has six sitting figures in it; on each +side of the canopy over the Virgin's head, Moses and Aaron; Moses with +the tables of the law, and Aaron with great blossomed staff: with them +again, two on either side, sit the four greater prophets, their heads +veiled, and a scroll lying along between them, over their knees; old they +look, very old, old and passionate and fierce, sitting there for so long. + +The next division has in it the death and burial of the Virgin,--the +twelve Apostles clustering round the deathbed of the Virgin. I wish my +photograph were on a larger scale, for this indeed seems to me one of the +most beautiful pieces of carving about this church, those earnest faces +expressing so many things mingled with their regret that she will be no +more with them; and she, the Virgin-Mother, in whom all those prophecies +were fulfilled, lying so quiet there, with her hands crossed downwards, +dead at last. Ah! and where will she go now? whose face will she see +always? Oh! that we might be there too! Oh! those faces so full of all +tender regret, which even They must feel for Her; full of all yearning, +and longing that they too might finish the long fight, that they might be +with the happy dead: there is a wonder on their faces too, when they see +what the mighty power of Death is. The foremost is bending down, with +his left hand laid upon her breast, and he is gazing there so long, so +very long; one looking there too, over his shoulder, rests his hand on +him; there is one at the head, one at the foot of the bed; and he at the +head is turning round his head, that he may see her face, while he holds +in his hands the long vestment on which her head rests. + +In my photograph the shadow is so thick that I cannot see much of the +burial of the Virgin, can see scarce anything of the faces, only just the +forms, of the Virgin lying quiet and still there, of the bending angels, +and their great wings that shadow everything there. + +So also of the third and last division filling the top of the arch. I +only know that it represents the Virgin sitting glorified with Christ, +crowned by angels, and with angels all about her. + +The first row in the vaulting of the porch I has angels in it, holding +censers and candlesticks; the next has in it the kings who sprung from +Jesse, with a flowing bough twisted all among them; the third and last is +hidden by a projecting moulding. + +All the three porches of the west front have a fringe of cusps ending in +flowers, hanging to their outermost arch, and above this a band of flower- +work, consisting of a rose and three rose-leaves alternating with each +other. + +Concerning the central porch of the west front.--The pillar which divides +the valves of the central porch carries a statue of Our Lord; his right +hand raised to bless, his left hand holding the Book; along the jambs of +the porch are the Apostles, but not the Apostles alone, I should think; +those that are in the side that I can see have their distinctive emblems +with them, some of them at least. Their faces vary very much here, as +also their figures and dress; the one I like best among them is one who I +think is meant for St. James the Less, with a long club in his hands; but +they are all grand faces, stern and indignant, for they have come to +judgment. + +For there above in the tympanum, in the midst over the head of Christ, +stand three angels, and the midmost of them bears scales in his hands, +wherein are the souls being weighed against the accusations of the +Accuser, and on either side of him stands another angel, blowing a long +trumpet, held downwards, and their long, long raiment, tight across the +breast, falls down over their feet, heavy, vast, ungirt; and at the +corners of this same division stand two other angels, and they also are +blowing long trumpets held downwards, so that their blast goes round the +world and through it; and the dead are rising between the robes of the +angels with their hands many of them lifted to heaven; and above them and +below them are deep bands of wrought flowers; and in the vaulting of the +porch are eight bands of niches with many, many figures carved therein; +and in the first row in the lowest niche Abraham stands with the saved +souls in the folds of his raiment. In the next row and in the rest of +the niches are angels with their hands folded in prayer; and in the next +row angels again, bearing the souls over, of which they had charge in +life; and this is, I think, the most gloriously carved of all those in +the vaulting. Then martyrs come bearing their palm-boughs; then priests +with the chalice, each of them; and others there are which I know not of. +But above the resurrection from the dead, in the tympanum, is the reward +of the good, and the punishment of the bad. Peter standing there at the +gate, and the long line of the blessed entering one by one; each one +crowned as he enters by an angel waiting there; and above their heads a +cornice takes the shape of many angels stooping down to them to crown +them. But on the inferno side the devil drives before him the wicked, +all naked, presses them on toward hell-mouth, that gapes for them, and +above their heads the devil-cornice hangs and weighs on them. And above +these the Judge showing the wounds that were made for the salvation of +the world; and St. Mary and St. John kneeling on either side of Him, they +who stood so once at the Crucifixion; two angels carrying cross and spear +and nails; two others kneeling, and, above, other angels, with their +wings spread, and singing. Something like this is carved in the central +porch at Amiens. + +Once more forgive me, I pray, for the poor way in which I have done even +that which I have attempted to do; and forgive me also for that which I +have left undone. + +And now, farewell to the church that I love, to the carved +temple-mountain that rises so high above the water-meadows of the Somme, +above the grey roofs of the good town. Farewell to the sweep of the +arches, up from the bronze bishops lying at the west end, up to the belt +of solemn windows, where, through the painted glass, the light comes +solemnly. Farewell to the cavernous porches of the west front, so grey +under the fading August sun, grey with the wind-storms, grey with the +rain-storms, grey with the beat of many days' sun, from sunrise to +sunset; showing white sometimes, too, when the sun strikes it strongly; +snowy-white, sometimes, when the moon is on it, and the shadows growing +blacker; but grey now, fretted into black by the mitres of the bishops, +by the solemn covered heads of the prophets, by the company of the risen, +and the long robes of the judgment-angels, by hell-mouth and its flames +gaping there, and the devils that feed it; by the saved souls and the +crowning angels; by the presence of the Judge, and by the roses growing +above them all for ever. + +Farewell to the spire, gilt all over with gold once, and shining out +there, very gloriously; dull and grey now, alas; but still it catches, +through its interlacement of arches, the intensest blue of the blue +summer sky; and, sometimes at night you may see the stars shining through +it. + +It is fair still, though the gold is gone, the spire that seems to rock, +when across it, in the wild February nights, the clouds go westward. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{21} See Thorpe's _Northern Mythology_, vol. ii, p. 214. + +{156} In the explanatory remarks accompanying the engravings from +Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel, published by the Arundel Society. +I regret not being able to give the reference to the passage, not having +the work by me. + +_Printed at_ THE AVON PRESS, _London_ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD OF ROMANCE*** + + +******* This file should be named 17973.txt or 17973.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/9/7/17973 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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