"Methought both that this Queen was a fair woman, and that she looked
kindly upon me, and at last she said, sighing, that she were well at
ease if her baron were even such a man as I, whereas the said Lord
was fierce and cruel, and yet a dastard withal. But the said Agatha
turned on her, and chided her, as one might with a child, and said:
'Hold thy peace of thy loves and thy hates before a very stranger!
Or must I leave yet more of my blood on the pavement of the White Pillar,
for the pleasure of thy loose tongue? Come out now, mountain-carle!'
"And she took me by the hand and led me out, and when we had
passed the door and it was shut, she turned to me and said:
'Thou, if I hear any word abroad of what my Lady has just spoken,
I shall know that thou hast told it, and though I be but a thrall,
yea, and of late a mishandled one, yet am I of might enough
in Utterbol to compass thy destruction.'
"I laughed in her face and went my ways: and thereafter I saw many folk
and showed them my beast, and soon learned two things clearly.
"And first that the Lord and the Lady were now utterly at variance.
For a little before he had come home, and found a lack in his household--
to wit, how a certain fair woman whom he had but just got hold of,
and whom he lusted after sorely, was fled away. And he laid
the wyte thereof on his Lady, and threatened her with death:
and when he considered that he durst not slay her, or torment her
(for he was verily but a dastard), he made thy friend Agatha pay
for her under pretence of wringing a true tale out of her.
Pages:
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575