roudys. On a morning in the beginning of
May, the queen went forth with her ladies to an orchard, and fell asleep
under an "ympe"[66] tree till it was long past noon. When her ladies woke
her, she cried aloud, tore her clothes, and disfigured herself with her
nails. They sought assistance and put her to bed in her chamber, whither
the king came to visit her, and ask her what might help her. She told him
how in her sleep she had been bidden by a knight to come and speak with his
lord the king; she refused, but the king came to her, with a hundred
knights and a hundred ladies in white on white steeds, and his crown was
all of precious stones. He bore her away to a fair palace, and showed her
his possessions. Then he took her back, but bade her be beneath the tree on
the morrow, when she should go with them and stay with them for ever.

King Orfeo was greatly distressed, and none could advise him. On the morrow
he took his queen and ten hundred knights to guard her beneath the ympe
tree; but in vain, she was away with the fairy, and they knew not whither.
King Orfeo in grief called together his barons and knights and squires, and
bade them obey his high steward as regent; he himself went forth barefoot
and in poor attire into the wilderness, with naught but his harp.

So for ten winters he abode in the forest and on the heath, in a hollow
tree, or under leaves and grass, till his frame shrank and his beard grew
long; and ever and anon, when the day was fair, he would play his harp, and
the beasts of the forest and the birds on bush and briar would come about
him to hearken.

Then on a hot day he saw the king of fairy and his retinue riding with
hounds and blowing horns; and again he saw a great host of knights with
drawn swords; and again he saw sixty ladies, gentle and gay, riding on
palfreys and bearing hawks on their wrists. Their falcons had good sport,
and Orfeo drew nigh to watch; and looking on the face of one of the ladies,
he recognised Meroudys. They gazed at each other speechless, and tears ran
from her eyes; but the other ladies bore her away. The king followed them
to a fair country where there was neither hill nor dale, and into a castle,
gaining entrance as a minstrel. Then he saw many men and women sleeping on
every side, seemingly dead; among them he again beheld his wife. And he
came before the king and queen of that realm, and harped so sweetly that
the king promised him whatever he might ask. He asked f