John could have
made it, and no one could have asserted that there was any door or
window there--so perfectly was it concealed.

(Vv. 6393-6424.) When Fenice saw the door open, and the sun come
streaming in, as she had not seen it for many a day, her heart beat high
with joy; she said that now there was nothing lacking, since she could
leave her dungeon-tower, and that she wished for no other lodging-place.
She passed out through the door into the garden, with its pleasures and
delights. In the middle of the garden stood a grafted tree loaded with
blooming flowers and leaves, and with a wide-spreading top. The branches
of it were so trained that they all hung downwards until they almost
touched the ground; the main trunk, however, from which they sprang,
rose straight into the air. Fenice desires no other place. Beneath the
tree the turf is very pleasant and fine, and at noon, when it is hot,
the sun will never be high enough for its rays to penetrate there. John
had shown his skill in arranging and training the branches thus. There
Fenice goes to enjoy herself, where they set up a bed for her by day.
There they taste of joy and delight. And the garden is enclosed about
with a high wall connected with the tower, so that nothing can enter
there without first passing through the tower.

(Vv. 6425-6586.) Fenice now is very happy: there is nothing to cause her
displeasure, and nothing is lacking which she desires, when her lover is
at liberty to embrace her beneath the blossoms and the leaves. [242]
At the season when people take the sparrow-hawk and setter and hunt the
lark and brown-thrush or stalk the quail and partridge, it chanced that
a knight of Thrace, who was young and alert and inclined to knightly
sport, came one day close by the tower in his search for game. The hawk
of Bertrand (for such was his name) having missed a lark, had flown
away, and Bertrand thought how great his loss would be if he should lose
his hunting-bird. When he saw it come down and light in a garden beneath
the tower he was glad, for he thought he could not lose it now. At once
he goes and clambers up the wall until he succeeds in getting over it,
when beneath the tree he sees Fenice and Cliges lying asleep and naked
in close embrace. "God!" said he, "what has happened to me now? What
marvel is this I see? Is that not Cliges? It surely is. Is not that the
empress with him there? Nay, but it looks like her. Never did one thing
so resemble an