"Then he said: 'It is good, son: come home now to thy mother
and thy kindred.' Then my lord turned to me while the king took
no heed, and no man in the ring of knights moved from his place,
and he set me in the saddle, and turned about to mount,
and there came a lord from the ring of men gloriously bedight,
and he bowed lowly before my lord, and held his stirrup for him:
but lightly he leapt up into the saddle, and took my reins
and led me along with him, so that he and the king and I went
on together, and all the baronage and their folk shouted
and tossed sword and spear aloft and followed after us.
And we left the meadow quiet and simple again, and rode through
the gate of the king's chief city, wherein was his high house
and his castle, the dwelling-place of his kindred from of old.
CHAPTER 7
The Lady Tells of the Strife and Trouble That Befell After Her
Coming to the Country of the King's Son
"When we came to the King's House, my lord followed his father
into the hall, where sat his mother amongst her damsels:
she was a fair woman, and looked rather meek than high-hearted;
my lord led me up to her, and she embraced and kissed him and caressed
him long; then she turned about to me and would have spoken to me,
but the king, who stood behind us, scowled on her, and she forebore;
but she looked me on somewhat kindly, and yet as one who is afeard.
"Thus it went for the rest of the day, and my lord had me to sit
beside him in the great hall when the banquet was holden, and I
ate and drank with him and beheld all the pageants by his side,
and none meddled with me either to help or to hinder, because they
feared the king.
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