For Enid,all abashed she knew not why,Dared not to glance at her good mother's face,But silently,in all obedience,Her mother silent too,nor helping her,Laid from her limbs the costly-broidered gift,And robed them in her ancient suit again,And so descended.Never man rejoiced More than Geraint to greet her thus attired;And glancing all at once as keenly at her As careful robins eye the delver's toil,Made her cheek burn and either eyelid fall,But rested with her sweet face satisfied;Then seeing cloud upon the mother's brow,Her by both hands she caught,and sweetly said,'O my new mother,be not wroth or grieved At thy new son,for my petition to her.
When late I left Caerleon,our great Queen,In words whose echo lasts,they were so sweet,Made promise,that whatever bride I brought,Herself would clothe her like the sun in Heaven.
Thereafter,when I reached this ruined hall,Beholding one so bright in dark estate,I vowed that could I gain her,our fair Queen,No hand but hers,should make your Enid burst Sunlike from cloud--and likewise thought perhaps,That service done so graciously would bind The two together;fain I would the two Should love each other:how can Enid find A nobler friend?Another thought was mine;I came among you here so suddenly,That though her gentle presence at the lists Might well have served for proof that I was loved,I doubted whether daughter's tenderness,Or easy nature,might not let itself Be moulded by your wishes for her weal;Or whether some false sense in her own self Of my contrasting brightness,overbore Her fancy dwelling in this dusky hall;And such a sense might make her long for court And all its perilous glories:and I thought,That could I someway prove such force in her Linked with such love for me,that at a word (No reason given her)she could cast aside A splendour dear to women,new to her,And therefore dearer;or if not so new,Yet therefore tenfold dearer by the power Of intermitted usage;then I felt That I could rest,a rock in ebbs and flows,Fixt on her faith.Now,therefore,I do rest,A prophet certain of my prophecy,That never shadow of mistrust can cross Between us.Grant me pardon for my thoughts:
And for my strange petition I will make Amends hereafter by some gaudy-day,When your fair child shall wear your costly gift Beside your own warm hearth,with,on her knees,Who knows?another gift of the high God,Which,maybe,shall have learned to lisp you thanks.'
He spoke:the mother smiled,but half in tears,Then brought a mantle down and wrapt her in it,And claspt and kissed her,and they rode away.
Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climbed The giant tower,from whose high crest,they say,Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,And white sails flying on the yellow sea;But not to goodly hill or yellow sea Looked the fair Queen,but up the vale of Usk,By the flat meadow,till she saw them come;And then descending met them at the gates,Embraced her with all welcome as a friend,And did her honour as the Prince's bride,And clothed her for her bridals like the sun;And all that week was old Caerleon gay,For by the hands of Dubric,the high saint,They twain were wedded with all ceremony.
And this was on the last year's Whitsuntide.
But Enid ever kept the faded silk,Remembering how first he came on her,Drest in that dress,and how he loved her in it,And all her foolish fears about the dress,And all his journey toward her,as himself Had told her,and their coming to the court.
And now this morning when he said to her,'Put on your worst and meanest dress,'she found And took it,and arrayed herself therein.
