第30章 Geraint and Enid(7)

Did her mock-honour as the fairest fair,And,toppling over all antagonism,So waxed in pride,that I believed myself Unconquerable,for I was wellnigh mad:

And,but for my main purpose in these jousts,I should have slain your father,seized yourself.

I lived in hope that sometime you would come To these my lists with him whom best you loved;And there,poor cousin,with your meek blue eyes The truest eyes that ever answered Heaven,Behold me overturn and trample on him.

Then,had you cried,or knelt,or prayed to me,I should not less have killed him.And so you came,--But once you came,--and with your own true eyes Beheld the man you loved (I speak as one Speaks of a service done him)overthrow My proud self,and my purpose three years old,And set his foot upon me,and give me life.

There was I broken down;there was I saved:

Though thence I rode all-shamed,hating the life He gave me,meaning to be rid of it.

And all the penance the Queen laid upon me Was but to rest awhile within her court;Where first as sullen as a beast new-caged,And waiting to be treated like a wolf,Because I knew my deeds were known,I found,Instead of scornful pity or pure scorn,Such fine reserve and noble reticence,Manners so kind,yet stately,such a grace Of tenderest courtesy,that I began To glance behind me at my former life,And find that it had been the wolf's indeed:

And oft I talked with Dubric,the high saint,Who,with mild heat of holy oratory,Subdued me somewhat to that gentleness,Which,when it weds with manhood,makes a man.

And you were often there about the Queen,But saw me not,or marked not if you saw;Nor did I care or dare to speak with you,But kept myself aloof till I was changed;And fear not,cousin;I am changed indeed.'

He spoke,and Enid easily believed,Like simple noble natures,credulous Of what they long for,good in friend or foe,There most in those who most have done them ill.

And when they reached the camp the King himself Advanced to greet them,and beholding her Though pale,yet happy,asked her not a word,But went apart with Edyrn,whom he held In converse for a little,and returned,And,gravely smiling,lifted her from horse,And kissed her with all pureness,brother-like,And showed an empty tent allotted her,And glancing for a minute,till he saw her Pass into it,turned to the Prince,and said:

'Prince,when of late ye prayed me for my leave To move to your own land,and there defend Your marches,I was pricked with some reproof,As one that let foul wrong stagnate and be,By having looked too much through alien eyes,And wrought too long with delegated hands,Not used mine own:but now behold me come To cleanse this common sewer of all my realm,With Edyrn and with others:have ye looked At Edyrn?have ye seen how nobly changed?

This work of his is great and wonderful.

His very face with change of heart is changed.

The world will not believe a man repents:

And this wise world of ours is mainly right.

Full seldom doth a man repent,or use Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch Of blood and custom wholly out of him,And make all clean,and plant himself afresh.

Edyrn has done it,weeding all his heart As I will weed this land before I go.

I,therefore,made him of our Table Round,Not rashly,but have proved him everyway One of our noblest,our most valorous,Sanest and most obedient:and indeed This work of Edyrn wrought upon himself After a life of violence,seems to me A thousand-fold more great and wonderful Than if some knight of mine,risking his life,My subject with my subjects under him,Should make an onslaught single on a realm Of robbers,though he slew them one by one,And were himself nigh wounded to the death.'

So spake the King;low bowed the Prince,and felt His work was neither great nor wonderful,And past to Enid's tent;and thither came The King's own leech to look into his hurt;And Enid tended on him there;and there Her constant motion round him,and the breath Of her sweet tendance hovering over him,Filled all the genial courses of his blood With deeper and with ever deeper love,As the south-west that blowing Bala lake Fills all the sacred Dee.So past the days.

But while Geraint lay healing of his hurt,The blameless King went forth and cast his eyes On each of all whom Uther left in charge Long since,to guard the justice of the King:

He looked and found them wanting;and as now Men weed the white horse on the Berkshire hills To keep him bright and clean as heretofore,He rooted out the slothful officer Or guilty,which for bribe had winked at wrong,And in their chairs set up a stronger race With hearts and hands,and sent a thousand men To till the wastes,and moving everywhere Cleared the dark places and let in the law,And broke the bandit holds and cleansed the land.

Then,when Geraint was whole again,they past With Arthur to Caerleon upon Usk.

There the great Queen once more embraced her friend,And clothed her in apparel like the day.

And though Geraint could never take again That comfort from their converse which he took Before the Queen's fair name was breathed upon,He rested well content that all was well.

Thence after tarrying for a space they rode,And fifty knights rode with them to the shores Of Severn,and they past to their own land.

And there he kept the justice of the King So vigorously yet mildly,that all hearts Applauded,and the spiteful whisper died:

And being ever foremost in the chase,And victor at the tilt and tournament,They called him the great Prince and man of men.

But Enid,whom her ladies loved to call Enid the Fair,a grateful people named Enid the Good;and in their halls arose The cry of children,Enids and Geraints Of times to be;nor did he doubt her more,But rested in her fealty,till he crowned A happy life with a fair death,and fell Against the heathen of the Northern Sea In battle,fighting for the blameless King.