Sooth to say, it might else have gone hard
with thee on the way to my house, or still more in my house.
But now be of good heart, for unless of thine own folly thou
run on the sword's point, thou mayst yet live and do well."
Then he turned to the Lady and said: "Dame, for as good
a leech as ye be, ye may not heal this man so that he may sit
in his saddle within these ten days; and now what is to do
in this matter?"
She looked on him with smiling lips and a strange light
in her eyes, and said: "Yea, forsooth, what wilt thou do?
Wilt thou abide here by Walter thyself alone, and let me bring
the imp of Upmeads home to our house? Or wilt thou ride home
and send folk with a litter to us? Or shall this youngling ride
at all adventure, and seek to Sunway through the blind woodland?
Which shall it be?"
The knight laughed outright, and said: "Yea, fair one, this is much
like to the tale of the carle at the ferry with the fox, and the goat,
and the cabbage."
There was scarce a smile on her face as she said gently:
"One thing is to be thought of, that Walter's soul is not yet
so fast in his body that either thou or some rough-handed leech
may be sure of healing him; it must be this hand, and the learning
which it hath learned which must deal with him for a while.
And she stretched out her arm over the wounded man,
with the fingers pointing down the water, and reddened withal,
as if she felt the hearts' greediness of the two men who were
looking on her beauty.
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