Child Christopher and Goldilind the FairMorris, William
Science
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction
So therewithal they went their ways to the chapel where was the wedding
done as grandly as might be, considering they were in no grander place
than Greenharbour. And when all was done, and folk began to flow away
from the chapel, and Goldilind sat shamefaced but strangely happy in
a great stall of the choir, the Earl called Christopher unto him, and
said: "My lad, I deem that some great fortune shall betide thee since
already thou hast begun so luckily. But I beseech thee mar not thy
fortune by coming back with thy fair wife to the land of Meadham; or
else it may be thou shalt cast thy life away, and that will bring her
sorrow, as I can see well."
He spake this grimly, though he smiled as he spake. But he went on more
gently: "I will not send you twain away empty-handed; when ye go out
a-gates into the wide world, ye shall find two fair horses for your
riding, well bedight, and one with a woman's saddle; and, moreover,
a sumpter beast, not very lightly burdened, for on one side of him he
beareth achest wherein is, first of all, the raiment of my Lady, and
beneath it some deal of silver and gold and gems; but on the other
side is victual and drink for the way for you, and raiment for thee,
youngling. How sayest thou, is it well?"
"It is well, Lord," said Christopher; "yet would I have with me the
raiment wherewith I came hither, and my bow and my sax."
"Yea and wherefore, carle?" said Earl Geoffrey.
Said the youngling: "We be going to ride the wild-wood, and it might be
better for safety's sake that I be so clad as certain folk look to see
men ride there."
But he reddened as he spake; and the Earl said: "By Allhallows! but it
is not ill thought of; and, belike, the same-like kind of attire might
be better to hide the queenship of the Lady from the wood-folk than that
which now she weareth?"
"True is that, Lord," quoth Christopher.
"Yet," said the Earl, "I will have you go forth from the Castle clad in
your lordly weed, lest folk of mine say that I have stripped my Lady and
cast her forth: don ye your poor raiment when in the wood ye be."
Therewith he called to a squire, and bade him seek out that poor raiment
of the new-wedded youngling, and bow withal and shafts good store, and
do all on the sumpter; and, furthermore, he bade him tell one of my
Lady's women to set on the sumpter some of Goldilind's old and used
raiment. So the squire did the Earl's will, and both got Christopher's
gear and also found Aloyse and gave her the Earl's word.
She smiled thereat, and went straightway and fetched the very same
raiment, green gown and all, which she had brought to Goldilind
in prison that other day, and in which Goldilind had fled from
Greenharbour. And when she had done them in the chest above all the
other gear, she stood yet beside the horses amidst of the varlets and
squires who were gathered there to see the new-wedded folk depart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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