o Littledale once more, and there they abode
till spring was come and was wearing into summer, and messages had come
and gone betwixt them and the Tofts, and it was agreed that with the
first of autumn they should go back to the Tofts and see what should
betide.

But now leave we Christopher and these good fellows of the Tofts and
turn to Goldilind, who is yet dwelling amid no very happy days in the
Castle of Greenharbour, on the northernmost marches of Meadham.

CHAPTER XII. OF GOLDILIND IN THE MAY MORNING AT GREENHARBOUR.

May was on the land now, and was come into its second week, and
Goldilind awoke on a morn in the Castle of Greenharbour; but little did
her eyes behold of the May, even when they were fully open; for she
was lying, not in her own chamber, which was proper, and even somewhat
stately, and from whence she could look on the sky and greenwood, but
in a chamber low down amidst the footings of the wall, little lighted,
unadorned, with nought in it for sport or pleasure; nought, forsooth,
save the pallet bed on which she lay, a joint stool and water ewer.
To be short, though it were called the Least Guard-chamber, it was a
prison, and she was there dreeing her penance, as Dame Elinor would
call the cruelty of her malice, which the chaplain, Dame Elinor's
led captain, had ordained her for some sin which the twain had forged
between them.

She lay there naked in her smock, with no raiment anigh her, and this
was the third morning whereon she had awakened to the dusky bare walls,
and a long while had their emptiness made of the hours: but she lay
quiet and musing, not altogether without cheer now; for indeed she was
not wont to any longer penance than this she had but now tholed, so she
looked for release presently: and, moreover, there had grown in her mind
during those three days a certain purpose; to wit, that she would get
hold of the governor of the castle privily, and two or three others of
the squires who most regarded her, and bewail her case to them, so that
she might perchance get some relief. Forsooth, as she called to mind
this resolve, her heart beat and her cheek flushed, for well she knew
that there was peril in it, and she forecast what might be the worst
that would come thereof, while, on the other hand, the best that might
be seemed to her like a glimpse of Paradise.

As she lay there and turned the matter over in her mind for this many an
hundred time, there came a key into the