But the days and the years wore,
and wealth came back to the mighty of the land, and fields flourished
and the acres bore increase, and fair houses were builded in the towns;
and the land was called happy again.
"But for me I was not so happy: and I looked back fondly
to the days of the greenwood and the fellowship of the Dry Tree,
and the days before that, of my flight with my lord.
And moreover with the wearing of the years those murmurs against me
and the blind causeless hatred began to grow again, and chiefly
methinks because I was the king, and my lord the king's cloak:
but therewith tales concerning me began to spring up,
how that I was not only a sorceress, but even one foredoomed
from of old and sent by the lords of hell to wreck that fair
Land of the Tower and make it unhappy and desolate.
And the tale grew and gathered form, till now, when the bloom
of my beauty was gone, I heard hard and fierce words cried after
me in the streets when I fared abroad, and that still chiefly
by the women: for yet most men looked on me with pleasure.
Also my counsellors and lords warned me often that I must be
wary and of great forbearance if trouble were to be kept back.
"Now amidst these things as I was walking pensively in my garden
one summer day, it was told me that a woman desired to see me,
so I bade them bring her. And when she came I looked on her,
and deemed that I had seen her aforetime: she was not old,
but of middle age, of dark red hair, and brown eyes somewhat small:
not a big woman, but well fashioned of body, and looking as if she
had once been exceeding dainty and trim.
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