And while they listened for the distant hunt,
And
chiefly for the baying of Cavall,
King Arthur's hound of deepest mouth, there rode
Full slowly by a
knight, lady, and dwarf;
Whereof the dwarf lagged latest, and the
knightHad vizor up, and showed a
youthful face,
Imperious, and of haughtiest lineaments.
And Guinevere, not mindful of his face
In the King's hall, desired his name, and sent
Her
maiden to demand it of the dwarf;
Who being
vicious, old and irritable,
And doubling all his master's vice of pride,
Made answer
sharply that she should not know.
'Then will I ask it of himself,' she said.
'Nay, by my faith, thou shalt not,' cried the dwarf;
'Thou art not
worthy even to speak of him;'
And when she put her horse toward the
knight,
Struck at her with his whip, and she returned
Indignant to the Queen;
whereat Geraint
Exclaiming, 'Surely I will learn the name,'
Made
sharply to the dwarf, and asked it of him,
Who answered as before; and when the Prince
Had put his horse in
motion toward the
knight,
Struck at him with his whip, and cut his cheek.
The Prince's blood spirted upon the scarf,
Dyeing it; and his quick,
instinctive hand
Caught at the hilt, as to
abolish him:
But he, from his
exceeding manfulness
And pure
nobility of temperament,
Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrained
From even a word, and so returning said:
'I will
avenge this
insult, noble Queen,
Done in your
maiden's person to yourself:
And I will track this vermin to their earths:
For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubt
To find, at some place I shall come at, arms
On loan, or else for
pledge; and, being found,
Then will I fight him, and will break his pride,
And on the third day will again be here,
So that I be not fallen in fight. Farewell.'
'Farewell, fair Prince,' answered the
stately Queen.
'Be
prosperous in this journey, as in all;
And may you light on all things that you love,
And live to wed with her whom first you love:
But ere you wed with any, bring your bride,
And I, were she the daughter of a king,
Yea, though she were a
beggar from the hedge,
Will clothe her for her bridals like the sun.'
And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heard
The noble hart at bay, now the far horn,
A little vext at losing of the hunt,
A little at the vile occasion, rode,
By ups and downs, through many a
grassy glade
And
valley, with fixt eye following the three.
At last they issued from the world of wood,
And climbed upon a fair and even ridge,
And showed themselves against the sky, and sank.
And
thither there came Geraint, and
underneathBeheld the long street of a little town
In a long
valley, on one side whereof,
White from the mason's hand, a
fortress rose;
And on one side a castle in decay,
Beyond a
bridge that spanned a dry ravine:
And out of town and
valley came a noise
As of a broad brook o'er a shingly bed
Brawling, or like a clamour of the rooks
At distance, ere they settle for the night.
And
onward to the
fortress rode the three,
And entered, and were lost behind the walls.
'So,' thought Geraint, 'I have tracked him to his earth.'
And down the long street riding wearily,
Found every hostel full, and everywhere
Was
hammer laid to hoof, and the hot hiss
And bustling
whistle of the youth who scoured
His master's
armour; and of such a one
He asked, 'What means the
tumult in the town?'
Who told him, scouring still, 'The sparrow-hawk!'
Then riding close behind an ancient churl,
Who,
smitten by the dusty sloping beam,
Went sweating
underneath a sack of corn,
Asked yet once more what meant the hubbub here?
Who answered
gruffly, 'Ugh! the sparrow-hawk.'
Then riding further past an
armourer's,
Who, with back turned, and bowed above his work,
Sat riveting a
helmet on his knee,
He put the self-same query, but the man
Not turning round, nor looking at him, said:
'Friend, he that labours for the sparrow-hawk
Has little time for idle questioners.'
Whereat Geraint flashed into sudden spleen:
'A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk!
Tits, wrens, and all
winged nothings peck him dead!
Ye think the
rusticcackle of your bourg
The murmur of the world! What is it to me?
O
wretched set of sparrows, one and all,
Who pipe of nothing but of sparrow-hawks!
Speak, if ye be not like the rest, hawk-mad,
Where can I get me harbourage for the night?
And arms, arms, arms to fight my enemy? Speak!'
Whereat the
armourer turning all amazed
And
seeing one so gay in
purple silks,
Came forward with the
helmet yet in hand
And answered, 'Pardon me, O stranger
knight;
We hold a tourney here tomorrow morn,
And there is scantly time for half the work.
Arms? truth! I know not: all are wanted here.
Harbourage? truth, good truth, I know not, save,
It may be, at Earl Yniol's, o'er the
bridgeYonder.' He spoke and fell to work again.
Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet,
Across the
bridge that spanned the dry ravine.
There musing sat the hoary-headed Earl,
(His dress a suit of frayed magnificence,
Once fit for feasts of ceremony) and said:
'Whither, fair son?' to whom Geraint replied,
'O friend, I seek a harbourage for the night.'
Then Yniol, 'Enter
therefore and partake
The
slenderentertainment of a house
Once rich, now poor, but ever open-doored.'
'Thanks,
venerable friend,' replied Geraint;
'So that ye do not serve me sparrow-hawks
For supper, I will enter, I will eat
With all the
passion of a twelve hours' fast.'
Then sighed and smiled the hoary-headed Earl,
And answered, 'Graver cause than yours is mine
To curse this hedgerow thief, the sparrow-hawk:
But in, go in; for save yourself desire it,
We will not touch upon him even in jest.'
Then rode Geraint into the castle court,
His
charger trampling many a prickly star
Of sprouted
thistle on the broken stones.
He looked and saw that all was ruinous.
Here stood a shattered archway plumed with fern;
And here had fallen a great part of a tower,
Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff,
And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers:
And high above a piece of
turret stair,
Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound
Bare to the sun, and
monstrous ivy-stems
Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms,
And sucked the joining of the stones, and looked
A knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.
And while he waited in the castle court,
The voice of Enid, Yniol's daughter, rang
Clear through the open
casement of the hall,
Singing; and as the sweet voice of a bird,
Heard by the lander in a
lonely isle,
Moves him to think what kind of bird it is
That sings so
delicately clear, and make
Conjecture of the
plumage and the form;
So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint;
And made him like a man
abroad at morn
When first the
liquid note
beloved of men
Comes flying over many a windy wave
To Britain, and in April suddenly
Breaks from a coppice gemmed with green and red,
And he suspends his
converse with a friend,
Or it may be the labour of his hands,
To think or say, 'There is the nightingale;'
So fared it with Geraint, who thought and said,
'Here, by God's grace, is the one voice for me.'
It chanced the song that Enid sang was one
Of Fortune and her wheel, and Enid sang:
'Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;
Turn thy wild wheel through
sunshine, storm, and cloud;
Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.
'Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;
With that wild wheel we go not up or down;
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.
'Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;
Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands;
For man is man and master of his fate.
'Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd;
Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud;
Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.'
'Hark, by the bird's song ye may learn the nest,'
Said Yniol; 'enter quickly.' Entering then,
Right o'er a mount of newly-fallen stones,
The dusky-raftered many-cobwebbed hall,
He found an ancient dame in dim brocade;
And near her, like a
blossom vermeil-white,
That
lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath,
Moved the fair Enid, all in faded silk,
Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint,
'Here by God's rood is the one maid for me.'
But none spake word except the hoary Earl:
'Enid, the good
knight's horse stands in the court;
Take him to stall, and give him corn, and then
Go to the town and buy us flesh and wine;
And we will make us merry as we may.
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.'
He spake: the Prince, as Enid past him, fain
To follow,
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strode a
stride, but Yniol caught
His
purple scarf, and held, and said, 'Forbear!
Rest! the good house, though ruined, O my son,
Endures not that her guest should serve himself.'
And reverencing the custom of the house
Geraint, from utter
courtesy, forbore.
So Enid took his
charger to the stall;
And after went her way across the
bridge,
And reached the town, and while the Prince and Earl