"The woman stayed and leaned against this stonework and said to me:
'Go about now and gather dry sticks for a fire.' I durst do
naught else, and said to myself that I should be whipped if I
were tardy, though, forsooth, I thought she was going to kill me;
and I brought her a bundle, and she said, 'Fetch more.'
And when I had brought her seven bundles, she said: 'It is enough:
stand over against me and hearken.' So I stood there quaking;
for my fear, which had somewhat abated while I went to and fro
after the wood, now came back upon me tenfold.
"She said: 'It were thy due that I should slay thee here and now,
as thou slayest the partridges which thou takest in thy springes:
but for certain causes I will not slay thee. Again, it were
no more than thy earnings were I to torment thee till thou
shouldst cry out for death to deliver thee from the anguish;
and if thou wert a woman grown, even so would I deal with thee.
But thou art yet but a child, therefore I will keep thee to see
what shall befall betwixt us. Yet must I do somewhat to grieve thee,
and moreover something must be slain and offered up here on this altar,
lest all come to naught, both thou and I, and that which we have to do.
Hold thy white goat now, which thou lovest more than aught else,
that I may redden thee and me and this altar with the blood thereof.'
"I durst do naught but obey her, and I held the poor beast,
that licked my hands and bleated for love of me:
and now since my terror and the fear of death was lessened
at her words, I wept sore for my dear friend.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208