?"

Said Hallblithe: "I will tell you twain the tidings, and thereafter ask
me no more concerning them. Hearken. I went whereas ye bade me, and hid
myself in the bay-tree thicket; and there came maidens into the
blossoming orchard and made a resting-place with silken cushions close to
where I was lurking, and stood about as though they were looking for some
one to come. In a little time came two more maidens, and betwixt them
one so much fairer than any there, that my heart sank within me: whereas
I deemed because of her fairness that this would be the fore-doomed love
whereof ye spake, and lo, she was in nought like to my troth-plight
maiden, save that she was exceeding beauteous: nevertheless, heart-sick
as I was, I determined to abide the token that ye told me of. So she lay
down amidst those cushions, and I beheld her that she was sad of
countenance; and she was so near to me that I could see the tears welling
into her eyes, and running down her cheeks; so that I should have grieved
sorely for her had I not been grieving so sorely for myself. For
presently she sat up and said 'O maiden, bring me hither the book wherein
is the image of my beloved, that I may behold it in this season of sunset
wherein I first beheld it; that I may fill my heart with the sight
thereof before the sun is gone and the dark night come.'

"Then indeed my heart died within me when I wotted that this was the love
whereof the King spake, that he would give to me, and she not mine own
beloved, yet I could not choose but abide and look on a while, and she
being one that any man might love beyond measure. Now a maiden went away
into the house and came back again with a book covered with gold set with
gems; and the fair woman took it and opened it, and I was so near to her
that I saw every leaf clearly as she turned the leaves. And in that book
were pictures of many things, as flaming mountains, and castles of war,
and ships upon the sea, but chiefly of fair women, and queens, and
warriors and kings; and it was done in gold and azure and cinnabar and
minium. So she turned the leaves, till she came to one whereon was
pictured none other than myself, and over against me was the image of
mine own beloved, the Hostage of the Rose, as if she were alive, so that
the heart within me swelled with the sobbing which I must needs refrain,
which grieved me like a sword-stroke. Shame also took hold of me as the
fair woman spoke to my painted image, an