Now we have set ourselves to seek that woman, and if thou be she,
we would ask a question of thy wisdom.'
"I answered that I was even such as they had heard of,
and bade them ask.
"Said the old man:
"'Fifty years ago, when I was yet but a young man, there was
a fair woman who was Queen of the Land of the Tower and whom
we loved sorely because we had dwelt together with her amidst
tribulation in the desert and the wildwood: and we are not
of her people, but a fellowship of free men and champions
hight the Men of the Dry Tree: and we hoped that she would
one day come back and dwell with us and be our Lady and Queen:
and indeed trouble seemed drawing anigh her, so that we might
help her and she might become our fellow again, when lo! she
vanished away from the folk and none knew where she was gone.
Therefore a band of us of the Dry Tree swore an oath together
to seek her till we found her, that we might live and die together:
but of that band of one score and one, am I the last one left
that seeketh; for the rest are dead, or sick, or departed:
and indeed I was the youngest of them. But for these two men,
they are my sons whom I have bred in the knowledge of these things
and in the hope of finding tidings of our Lady and Queen,
if it were but the place where her body lieth. Thou art wise:
knowest thou the resting place of her bones?"
"When I had heard the tale of the old man I was moved to my
inmost heart, and I scarce knew what to say.
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