t, as
if his condescension must heal me on the spot. Yet the kindness that
was in him, and the wonder he afforded me, made up for all these airs
and graces.

"Alack and well a day!" exclaimed he, when he first came. "Vulcan hath
fallen from the clouds and lieth halting below. The apple which was
rosy is become green, and the Dutchman who of late flew is now become
ship's ballast. Nay, my poor ruin, thank me not for coming; 'tis the
common debt the high oweth to the low, the sound to the broken, the poem
to the prose; nay, 'tis the duty a knight oweth to his lady's humblest
menial."

"And how is the lady?" said I; for I wearied to hear of her, even from
any lips.

"Hast thou seen the swan with wings new dressed float on the summer
tide? Hast thou heard the thrush, full-throated, call his mate across
the lea? Hast thou watched the moon soar up the heavens, sweeping aside
the clouds, and defying the mists of earth? Hast thou marked, my
Dutchman, the summer laughter on a field of golden corn? Hast thou
tracked the merry breeze along the ripples of a dazzled ocean?--"

"Yes, yes," said I, "but what has that to do with the maiden we speak
of?"

He smiled on me pityingly.

"Such, poor youth, is she; and such, methinks, am I become, who sit at
her feet and sun myself in her light--"

"'Tis dark down here," I said, "but you seem to me neither swan, nor
thrush, nor moon, nor a corn field, nor an ocean. But I thank you, even
as you are, for coming."

"'Tis a sign of a sound mind," said he, "when gratitude answereth to
graciousness. And now, prithee, how do you do?"

I told him I was better, and that I might not have mended so far, but
for my dear master, Sir Ludar.

Then he bridled up and his cheeks coloured.

"Ah, Hercules is a good sailor, and a strong animal. 'Tis fit he should
wait upon you, since you be in my present favour. Moreover, like cureth
like, as it is said; therefore he is better here tending you, than
casting sheep's eyes on one who is as the sun above his head. I have
had a mind to admonish him to remove the offence of his visage from her
purview, for I perceived, by my own mislike of it, that it was a
weariness to her. The pure glass is dimmed by the breath of the
beholder, and a face at the window darkeneth a chamber."

"Sir Ludar will be here soon," said I; "I pray you stay and tell him
this."

"No," said he, looking, I thought, a little alarmed. "If the cloud
withdraw not from