The Wood Beyond the World

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXXIV: NOW COMETH THE MAID TO THE KING

  Then all they bowed before the King, and he spake again: "What is thatnoise that I hear without, as if it were the rising of the sea on a sandyshore, when the south-west wind is blowing."

  Then the elder opened his mouth to answer; but before he might get outthe word, there was a stir without the chamber door, and the throngparted, and lo! amidst of them came the Maid, and she yet clad in noughtsave the white coat wherewith she had won through the wilderness, savethat on her head was a garland of red roses, and her middle was wreathedwith the same. Fresh and fair she was as the dawn of June; her facebright, red-lipped, and clear-eyed, and her cheeks flushed with hope andlove. She went straight to Walter where he sat, and lightly put awaywith her hand the elder who would lead her to the ivory throne beside theKing; but she knelt down before him, and laid her hand on his steel-cladknee, and said: "O my lord, now I see that thou hast beguiled me, andthat thou wert all along a king-born man coming home to thy realm. Butso dear thou hast been to me; and so fair and clear, and so kind withaldo thine eyes shine on me from under the grey war-helm, that I willbeseech thee not to cast me out utterly, but suffer me to be thy servantand handmaid for a while. Wilt thou not?"

  But the King stooped down to her and raised her up, and stood on hisfeet, and took her hands and kissed them, and set her down beside him,and said to her: "Sweetheart, this is now thy place till the nightcometh, even by my side."

  So she sat down there meek and valiant, her hands laid in her lap, andher feet one over the other; while the King said: "Lords, this is mybeloved, and my spouse. Now, therefore, if ye will have me for King, yemust worship this one for Queen and Lady; or else suffer us both to goour ways in peace."

  Then all they that were in the chamber cried out aloud: "The Queen, theLady! The beloved of our lord!"

  And this cry came from their hearts, and not their lips only; for as theylooked on her, and the brightness of her beauty, they saw also themeekness of her demeanour, and the high heart of her, and they all fellto loving her. But the young men of them, their cheeks flushed as theybeheld her, and their hearts went out to her, and they drew their swordsand brandished them aloft, and cried out for her as men made suddenlydrunk with love: "The Queen, the Lady, the lovely one!"