my lord had the Castle of Abundance built up very fairly for
me and him to dwell in at whiles; and indeed we had before that dwelt
at a little manor house that was there, when we durst withdraw a little
from the strife; but now he had it done as fair as ye saw it, and had
those arras cloths made with the story of my sojourn in the wilderness,
even as ye saw them. 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. She spake, and again I seemed to have heard her voice
before: 'Hail, Queen,' she said, 'it does my heart good to see thee
thus in thy glorious estate.' So I took her greeting; but those tales
of my being but a sending of the Devil for the ruin of that land came
into my mind, and I sent away the folk who were thereby before I said
more to her. Then she spake again: 'Even so I guessed it would be
that thou wouldst grow great amongst women.'

"But I said, 'What is this? a