Chivalry: Dizain des Reines

avait tr

qu'on put

re d'aille

c lui manoi

ur puissant

IN ALL INNOCENCE CONVINCES HIM OF THE LITTLENESS OF HIS KINGDOM; SO THA

y of the

ion having been recorded in the preceding tale, it suffices here to record that this Henry was presently crowned King of England in Richard's place. All persons, saving only Owain Glyndwyr and Henry of Lancaster, believed King Richard dead at that period when Richard attended his own funeral, as a proceeding tak

by Richard to be the imp Orvendile, who notoriously ran every day around the world upon the Welshman's business. It was in the Isle of Taprobane, where the pismires are as great as hounds, and mine and store the gold of which the in

in brief, the barons who had ousted King Log had been the very first to find their squinting King Stork intolerable; and Northumberland, Worcester, Douglas, Mortimer, and so on

ves no other man can ever hope to reign tranquilly in these islands. Come then

have tried divers methods which we need not speak of,-I who can at will corrupt the air, and cause sickness and storms, raise heavy mists, and create plagues and fires and shi

n to trap a tiger with his appropriate bait. For you have a fief at Caer Idion, I think?-Very well! I intend to herd your sheep there, for a w

ome in his own person with at most some twenty trustworthy followers. I will have a hundred there; and certain aging scores will then be settled in that place

l you frankly that neither of us, that no man in the world, by reason of innate limitations, can ever rule otherwise than abominably, or, ruling, can create anything save discord. Nor can I see how this matters either, since the discomfort of an ant-village is not, after all, a planet-wrecking disaster. No, Owain, if the planets do indeed sing together, it is, depend upon it, to the b

Gruffyd, was murdered by a jesting man. He was more like me than the others, people said.... You are as yet the empty scabbard, powerless a

s often as Salomon, and

an loves par amours the second time he may safe

y of Lancaster as

even that which you dislike. No, you consider things with both eyes open, with an unmanly rationality:

usty scandals!" sai

s wife Alundyne, and their sole daughter Branwen. They gladly perceived Sire Richard was no more a peasant than he was a curmudgeon; as Caradawc observed: "It is perfectly apparent that the robe of Padarn Be

w to love this leisured life of bright and open spaces; and its long solitudes, grateful with the warm odors of growing things and with poignant

, as aimlessly as a wind veers, he had ridden at adventure, among sedate and alien peoples who adjudged him a madman; and she, in turn, would tell him curious tales from the Red

red like clear emeralds, and her abundant hair was so much cornfloss, only it was more brightly yellow and was of immeasurably finer texture. In full sunlight her cheeks were frosted like the surface of a peach, but the underlying cool pink of them was rather that of a cloud just after sunset, Richard decided. In all, a taking morsel! though her shapely hands were hard with labor, and she rarely

er-staves. "Saxon," he said, "you appear a stout ma

chard answered: "yet in reason, Messire Gwyllem,

soundly drubbed, as he had anticipated, but he found himself the stronger man of the two, and he m

ings; "or, to be perfectly exact, I never knew. But we will fight no more in this place. Come and go wi

llem; "but only if y

d creatures so long as one is able to approach them in a becoming spirit of levity: it is only their not infrequent misuse which I would condemn; and in my opinion the person who elects to build a shrine for any one of them has only himself to blame if his chosen goddess will accept no burnt-offering except his honor and

is all very fine. Perhaps it is also reason

aloud of Branwen, like a babbling faun, while to each rapture Richard affably assented. In his heart he likened the boy to Dionysos at Naxos, and could find no bla

merchant to another, since love was never bartered. Listen, Saxon!" He caught up Richar

Gwy

love me not,

ed you, seeing

de glad by the

a scroll bescra

tches, which t

ote instead on

ran

rded you inc

ervice, dear,

have dreame

eamed, when i

at shall love

at shall win y

im, you will h

ness engen

ts, nor unkindl

ran

ow not surely

lways love you

I am dead, with

rvice, Love w

in his last

ll, and sleep

f you and the

nd am glad dr

anks for all, a

ran

ould simply go to sleep and wake up with a headache. And were I to fall as many fathoms deep in love as this G

st desire controlled him, as varying winds sport with a fallen leaf, whose frank submission to superior vagaries the boy appeared to emulate. Richard saw

lf a tinker. He chatted out an hour with Richard, who perfectly recognize

xious cousin will come to speak with Richard of Bordeaux. And now,

rticularly ardent desire for the scoundrel's death. Thus crudely to demolish the knave's adroit and year-long schemings savored actually of grossness. The spider was venomous, and his destruction laudable; granted, but in crushing him you ruined his web, a miracle of patient machination, which, despite yourself, compelled hearty

and is not any more: presently Branwen will be married to this Gwyllem and will be grown fat and old, and I shall be remarried to little Dame Isabel, and

ead was bloodied when she raised it and through tearless sobs told of what had happened. A half-hour earlier, while she and Branwen were intent upon their milking, Gwyllem had ridden up, somewhat the worse for liquor. Branwen had c

use, and broke in the door. Against the farther wall stood lithe Branwen fighting silently: her breasts and shoulders were na

y snapped upward, so that his teeth were bared. There was a knife at Richard's girdle, which he now unsheathed and flung away.

nce and body of Richard, and heard the thin splitting vicious noise of torn cloth as Gwyllem clutched at Richard's tunic and tore it many times. Richard d

and lifted her in his arms lest Branwen's skirt be soiled by the demolished thing which sprawled across their path. She never spoke. She could not speak. In his arms she rode homeward, passi

ed as its handiest implement. He had been, and in the moment had known himself to be, the thrown spear as yet in air, about to kill and quite powerless to refrain from k

some shalots, salt, nuts, wild apples, lettuce, onions, and mushrooms. "Behold a feast!" said Richard. He noted then that she carried also a blue

to have done with shepherdi

when the masquerade is ended." And it seemed to

that sang: 'Over wild lands and tumbling seas flits Love, at will, and maddens the heart and beguiles the senses of all whom he attacks, whether his quar

uch terms that Gwyllem sang of this passion. Lord,

took up the lute, in full consciousness that his comp

Ric

onor of fair B

her:-and Jove,

rth and Heave

ht that lyre he

r famed gird

ty now), and

Plutus half t

al treasure

careful gods

goodly gifts th

came among t

unto her a l

ed, and saw the

rne, and Heaven m

of Rhiannon, an invitation to feast with a miser, and a speech of wisdom from the

nsibly nettled and perhaps a shad

Ric

t have made of

sound, in soft

song, or in

ve hymned you

as they,-and

thily, and d

ith imperfec

the prize I

o you, then,

s 'twixt you

with agile l

periods of

e-but just with,

urmuring, 'I l

his vanity was hurt, and the pin-prick spurred him to a counterfeit so specious that consciously he gloried in it. He was superb, and she believed him now; the

were motionless throughout the moment, attendant, it seemed to him; and to him his whole life was like a wave that trembled now at full height,

I do not know-I only know that you are very beautiful, Branwen,"

eld! Yonder is God's work to be done, and within me rages a commonwealth of devils. Child! child!" he cried, "I am, and ever was,

at his ease in the lengthen

n entertained the notion of loving me. That is well, for to-morrow, or, it may be, the day after, we must part forever. I would n

but, after all, the man loved her in his fashion, and to the uttermost reach of his gross nature. I love her in a rather more decorous and acceptable fashion, it is true, but only a half of me loves her. The other half of me remembers that I am

ed a covey of partridges which had settled for the night. The screech-owl had come out of his hole, and bats were already blundering about, and the air was cooling. The

ame, and now the trap was r

a party of soldiers, some fifteen in number, rode down the river's bank from the ford

ir," said Richard, when t

oy, my fair cousin," he said, "and very soon. Now send

"to disfigure the stage of ou

King Henry answered, "for whil

d said, "that in par

, by considering the trick which our grandfather, old Edward Longshanks, played on the French King at Mezelais. As matters stand, your men are one to ten. You are impotent. Now, now we balance our accounts!

y, sire-!" and Richard l

ir latest mockery! You the King of England ride to Sycharth to your death, and I the tender of sheep depart into London, without any hindr

gs saving this girl, and strode to her. He had caught up her hard,

said. His eye

King of England! O fool that I

ng you a king's whore. So I must choose between a peasant wench and England. N

y, between this woman's love and aught else there was no choice for him, he knew upon a sudden. Perhaps he would thus worship her always, he reflected: and then again, perhaps he would be tired of her before lo

of happy memory, when he educated you and had you acknowledged heir to the crown, but his love was so strong for his son the Prince of Wales that nothing could alter his purpose. And indeed if you had followed even the example of

ith you. Yonder across that river is the throne of England, which you appear, through some lunacy,

assuredly-Richard," he cried, a little shaken, "I perceive that u

indeed-but what had I to do with all this strife between the devil and the tiger? No, Glyndwyr will set up Mortimer against you now, and you two must fight it out. I am no more his tool,

r a while wherein each understood. "Dear fool," Sire Henry said, "there is no man in all the world

e and Branwen were alone and a little troubled, since each w

God!" he wildly cried, "I am

ier for your folly. I am the

f the sort, and of this fact I happen to be quite certain." Their lips met then an

F THE EIG