Glad also; then Geraint upon the horse
Mounted, and reach’d a hand, and on his foot
She set her own and climb’d; he turn’d his face
And kiss’d her climbing, and she cast her arms
About him, and at once they rode away.
And never yet, since high
in Paradise
O’er the four rivers the first roses
blew,
Came purer pleasure unto mortal kind
Than lived thro’ her, who in that
perilous hour
Put hand to hand beneath her husband’s
heart,
And felt him hers again: she did
not weep,
But o’er her meek eyes came a happy
mist
Like that which kept the heart of Eden
green
Before the useful trouble of the rain:
Yet not so misty were her meek blue eyes
As not to see before them on the path,
Right in the gateway of the bandit hold,
A knight of Arthur’s court, who
laid his lance
In rest, and made as if to fall upon him.
Then, fearing for his hurt and loss of
blood,
She, with her mind all full of what had
chanced,
Shriek’d to the stranger “Slay
not a dead man!”
“The voice of Enid,” said
the knight; but she,
Beholding it was Edyrn, son of Nudd,
Was moved so much the more, and shriek’d
again,
“O cousin, slay not him who gave
you life.”
And Edyrn moving frankly forward spake:
“My lord Geraint, I greet you with
all love;
I took you for a bandit knight of Doorm;
And fear not, Enid, I should fall upon
him,
Who love you, Prince, with something of
the love
Wherewith we love the Heaven that chastens
us.
For once, when I was up so high in pride
That I was half-way down the slope to
Hell,
By overthrowing me you threw me higher.
Now, made a knight of Arthur’s Table
Round,
And since I knew this Earl, when I myself
Was half a bandit in my lawless hour,
I come the mouthpiece of our King to Doorm
(The King is close behind me) bidding
him
Disband himself, and scatter all his powers,
Submit, and hear the judgment of the King.”
“He hears the judgment
of the King of kings,”
Cried the wan Prince; “and lo, the
powers of Doorm
Are scatter’d,” and he pointed
to the field,
Where, huddled here and there on mound
and knoll,
Were men and women staring and aghast,
While some yet fled; and then he plainlier
told
How the huge Earl lay slain within his
hall.
But when the knight besought him, “Follow
me,
Prince, to the camp, and in the King’s
own ear
Speak what has chanced; ye surely have
endured
Strange chances here alone;” that
other flush’d,
And hung his head, and halted in reply,
Fearing the mild face of the blameless
King,
And after madness acted question ask’d:
Till Edyrn crying, “If ye will not
go
To Arthur, then will Arthur come to you.”
“Enough,” he said, “I
follow,” and they went.
But Enid in their going had two fears,