The Wood Beyond the World

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXX: NOW THEY MEET AGAIN

  Complaining thus-wise, he fell asleep from sheer weariness, and when heawoke it was broad day, calm and bright and cloudless, with the scent ofthe earth refreshed going up into the heavens, and the birds singingsweetly in the bushes about him: for the dale whereunto he was now comewas a fair and lovely place amidst the shelving slopes of the mountains,a paradise of the wilderness, and nought but pleasant and sweet thingswere to be seen there, now that the morn was so clear and sunny.

  He arose and looked about him, and saw where, a hundred yards aloof, wasa thicket of small wood, as thorn and elder and whitebeam, all wreathedabout with the bines of wayfaring tree; it hid a bight of the stream,which turned round about it, and betwixt it and Walter was the grassshort and thick, and sweet, and all beset with flowers; and he said tohimself that it was even such a place as wherein the angels were leadingthe Blessed in the great painted paradise in the choir of the big churchat Langton on Holm. But lo! as he looked he cried aloud for joy, forforth from the thicket on to the flowery grass came one like to an angelfrom out of the said picture, white-clad and bare-foot, sweet of flesh,with bright eyes and ruddy cheeks; for it was the Maid herself. So heran to her, and she abode him, holding forth kind hands to him, andsmiling, while she wept for joy of the meeting. He threw himself uponher, and spared not to kiss her, her cheeks and her mouth, and her armsand her shoulders, and wheresoever she would suffer it. Till at last shedrew aback a little, laughing on him for love, and said: "Forbear now,friend, for it is enough for this time, and tell me how thou hast sped."

  "Ill, ill," said he.

  "What ails thee?" she said.

  "Hunger," he said, "and longing for thee."

  "Well," she said, "me thou hast; there is one ill quenched; take my hand,and we will see to the other one."

  So he took her hand, and to hold it seemed to him sweet beyond measure.But he looked up, and saw a little blue smoke going up into the air frombeyond the thicket; and he laughed, for he was weak with hunger, and hesaid: "Who is at the cooking yonder?"

  "Thou shalt see," she said; and led him therewith into the said thicketand through it, and lo! a fair little grassy place, full of flowers,betwixt the bushes and the bight of the stream; and on the little sandyere, just off the greensward, was a fire of sticks, and beside it twotrouts lying, fat and red-flecked.

  "Here is the breakfast," said she; "when it was time to wash the nightoff me e'en now, I went down the strand here into the rippling shallow,and saw the bank below it, where the water draws together yonder, anddeepens, that it seemed like to hold fish; and whereas I looked to meetthee presently, I groped the bank for them, going softly; and lo thou!Help me now, that we cook them."

  So they roasted them on the red embers, and fell to and ate well, both ofthem, and drank of the water of the stream out of each other's hollowhands; and that feast seemed glorious to them, such gladness went withit.

  But when they were done with their meat, Walter said to the Maid: "Andhow didst thou know that thou shouldst see me presently?"

  She said, looking on him wistfully: "This needed no wizardry. I lay notso far from thee last night, but that I heard thy voice and knew it."

  Said he, "Why didst thou not come to me then, since thou heardest mebemoaning thee?"

  She cast her eyes down, and plucked at the flowers and grass, and said:"It was dear to hear thee praising me; I knew not before that I was sosore desired, or that thou hadst taken such note of my body, and found itso dear."

  Then she reddened sorely, and said: "I knew not that aught of me had suchbeauty as thou didst bewail."

  And she wept for joy. Then she looked on him and smiled, and said: "Wiltthou have the very truth of it? I went close up to thee, and stood therehidden by the bushes and the night. And amidst thy bewailing, I knewthat thou wouldst soon fall asleep, and in sooth I out-waked thee."

  Then was she silent again; and he spake not, but looked on her shyly; andshe said, reddening yet more: "Furthermore, I must needs tell thee that Ifeared to go to thee in the dark night, and my heart so yearning towardsthee."

  And she hung her head adown; but he said: "Is it so indeed, that thoufearest me? Then doth that make me afraid--afraid of thy nay-say. For Iwas going to entreat thee, and say to thee: Beloved, we have now gonethrough many troubles; let us now take a good reward at once, and wedtogether, here amidst this sweet and pleasant house of the mountains, erewe go further on our way; if indeed we go further at all. For whereshall we find any place sweeter or happier than this?"

  But she sprang up to her feet, and stood there trembling before him,because of her love; and she said: "Beloved, I have deemed that it weregood for us to go seek mankind as they live in the world, and to liveamongst them. And as for me, I will tell thee the sooth, to wit, that Ilong for this sorely. For I feel afraid in the wilderness, and as if Ineeded help and protection against my Mistress, though she be dead; and Ineed the comfort of many people, and the throngs of the cities. I cannotforget her: it was but last night that I dreamed (I suppose as the dawngrew a-cold) that I was yet under her hand, and she was stripping me forthe torment; so that I woke up panting and crying out. I pray thee benot angry with me for telling thee of my desires; for if thou wouldst nothave it so, then here will I abide with thee as thy mate, and strive togather courage."

  He rose up and kissed her face, and said: "Nay, I had in sooth no mind toabide here for ever; I meant but that we should feast a while here, andthen depart: sooth it is, that if thou dreadest the wilderness, somewhatI dread the city."

  She turned pale, and said: "Thou shalt have thy will, my friend, if itmust be so. But bethink thee we be not yet at our journey's end, and mayhave many things and much strife to endure, before we be at peace and inwelfare. Now shall I tell thee--did I not before?--that while I am amaid untouched, my wisdom, and somedeal of might, abideth with me, andonly so long. Therefore I entreat thee, let us go now, side by side, outof this fair valley, even as we are, so that my wisdom and might may helpthee at need. For, my friend, I would not that our lives be short, somuch of joy as hath now come into them."

  "Yea, beloved," he said, "let us on straightway then, and shorten thewhile that sundereth us."

  "Love," she said, "thou shalt pardon me one time for all. But this is tobe said, that I know somewhat of the haps that lie a little way ahead ofus; partly by my lore, and partly by what I learned of this land of thewild folk whiles thou wert lying asleep that morning."

  So they left that pleasant place by the water, and came into the openvalley, and went their ways through the pass; and it soon became stonyagain, as they mounted the bent which went up from out the dale. Andwhen they came to the brow of the said bent, they had a sight of the opencountry lying fair and joyous in the sunshine, and amidst of it, againstthe blue hills, the walls and towers of a great city.

  Then said the Maid: "O, dear friend, lo you! is not that our abode thatlieth yonder, and is so beauteous? Dwell not our friends there, and ourprotection against uncouth wights, and mere evil things in guilefulshapes? O city, I bid thee hail!"

  But Walter looked on her, and smiled somewhat; and said: "I rejoice inthy joy. But there be evil things in yonder city also, though they benot fays nor devils, or it is like to no city that I wot of. And inevery city shall foes grow up to us without rhyme or reason, and lifetherein shall be tangled unto us."

  "Yea," she said; "but in the wilderness amongst the devils, what was tobe done by manly might or valiancy? There hadst thou to fall back uponthe guile and wizardry which I had filched from my very foes. But whenwe come down yonder, then shall thy valiancy prevail to cleave the tanglefor us. Or at the least, it shall leave a tale of thee behind, and Ishall worship thee."

  He laughed, and his face grew brighter: "Mastery mows the meadow," quothhe, "and one man is of little might against many. But I promise thee Ishall not be slothful before thee."