mber, and saw three great books there
laid on the lectern, but durst not have taken them even had I been able
to carry them; nor durst I even to look into them, for fear that some
spell might get to work in them if they were opened; but I found a rye
loaf whereof I had eaten somewhat in the morning, and another
untouched, and hanging to a horn of the lectern I found the necklace
which my mistress had taken from the dead woman. These I put into my
scrip, and as to the necklace, I will tell thee how I bestowed it later
on. Then I stepped out into the twilight which was fair and golden,
and full fain I was of it. Then I drove the goats out of their house
and went my way towards the Dale of Lore, and said to myself that the
carline would teach me what further to do, and I came there before the
summer dark had quite prevailed, and slept sweetly and softly amongst
my goats after I had tethered them in the best of the pasture."

CHAPTER 5

Yet More of the Lady's Story

"Lo thou, beloved," she said, "thou hast seen me in the wildwood with
little good quickened in me: doth not thine heart sink at the thought
of thy love and thy life given over to the keeping of such an one?" He
smiled in her face, and said: "Belike thou hast done worse than all
thou hast told me: and these days past I have wondered often what there
was in the stories which they of the Burg had against thee: yet sooth
to say, they told little of what thou hast done: no more belike than
being their foe." She sighed and said: "Well, hearken; yet shall I not
tell thee every deed that I have been partaker in.

"I sat in the Dale that next day and was happy, though I longed to see
that fair man again: sooth to say, since my mistress was dead,
everything seemed fairer to me, yea even mine own face, as I saw it in
the pools of the stream, though whiles I wondered when I should have
another mistress, and how she would deal with me; and ever I said I
would ask the carline when she came again to me. But all that day she
came not: nor did I marvel thereat. But when seven days passed and
still she came not, I fell to wondering what I should do: for my bread
was all gone, and I durst not go back to the house to fetch meal;
though there was store of it there. Howbeit, I drank of the milk of
the goats, and made curds thereof with the woodland roots, and ate of
the wood-berries like as thou hast done, friend, e'en now. And it was
easier for me to find a li