My first-born had
been slain by those wretches, and a second son that I bore had died
of a pestilence that war and famine had brought upon the land.
I will not wear thy soul with words about my grief and sorrow:
but it is to be told that I sat now in a perilous place, and yet I
might not step down from it and abide in that land, for then it was a
sure thing, that some of my foes would have laid hand on me and brought
me to judgment for being but myself, and I should have ended miserably.
So I gat to me all the strength that I might, and whereas there were many
who loved me still, some for my own sake, and some for the sake of my
lord that was, I endured in good hope that all my days were not done.
Yet I longed for the coming of the Teacher of Lore; for now I made up
my mind that I would go with her, and seek to the Well at the World's
End for weal and woe.
"She came while April was yet young: and I need make no long tale
of how we gat us away: for whereas she was wise in hidden lore,
it was no hard matter for her to give me another semblance
than mine own, so that I might have walked about the streets
of our city from end to end, and none had known me.
So I vanished away from my throne and my kingdom, and that
name and fame of a witch-wife clove to me once and for all,
and spread wide about the cities of folk and the kingdoms,
and many are the tales that have arisen concerning me,
and belike some of these thou hast heard told.
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