iges
has bowed to him. All whatsoever the emperor has devised and
promised was at once set before him. Cliges took as much wealth
and as many comrades as pleased and behoved him; but for his own
private use he takes away four different steeds: one white, one
sorrel, one dun, one black. But I was about to pass over one
thing that must not be omitted. Cliges goes to take leave of
Fenice, his lady-love, and to ask her leave to depart; for he
would fain commend her to God. He comes before her and kneels
down, weeping, so that he moistens with his tears all his tunic
and his ermine, and he bends his eyes to the ground; for he dares
not look straight in front of him, just as if he has committed
some wrong and crime towards her, and now shows by his mien that
he has shame for it. And Fenice, who beholds him timidly and
shyly, knows not what matter brings him; and she has said to him
in some distress: "Friend, fair sir, rise; sit by my side; weep
no more and tell me your pleasure." "Lady! What shall I say? What
conceal? I seek your permission to depart." "Depart? Why?"

"Lady! I must go away to Britain." "Tell me, then, on what quest,
before I give you permission." "Lady, my father, when he died and
departed this life, prayed me on no account to fail to go to
Britain as soon as I should be a knight. For nothing in the world
would I neglect his command. It will behove me not to play the
laggard as I go thither. It is a very long journey from here to
Greece; and if I were to go thither the journey from
Constantinople to Britain would be very long for me. But it is
meet that I take leave of you as being the lady whose I am
wholly." Many hidden and secret sighs and sobs had he made on
setting out; but no one had eyes so wide open or such good
hearing as to be able to perceive for a certainty from hearing or
sight, that there was love between the twain. Cliges, grievous
though it be to him, departs as soon as it is allowed him. He
goes away lost in thought; lost in thought remains the emperor
and many another; but Fenice is the most pensive of all: she
discovers neither bottom nor bound to the thought with which she
is filled, so greatly does it overflow and multiply in her. Full
of thought she has come to Greece: there was she held in great
honour as lady and empress; but her heart and spirit are with
Cliges wherever he turns, nor ever seeks she that her heart may
return to her unless he bring it back to her, he who is dying of