with the same. Fresh and fair she was as the dawn of June; her face
bright, red-lipped, and clear-eyed, and her cheeks flushed with hope and
love. She went straight to Walter where he sat, and lightly put away
with her hand the elder who would lead her to the ivory throne beside the
King; but she knelt down before him, and laid her hand on his steel-clad
knee, and said: "O my lord, now I see that thou hast beguiled me, and
that thou wert all along a king-born man coming home to thy realm. But
so dear thou hast been to me; and so fair and clear, and so kind withal
do thine eyes shine on me from under the grey war-helm, that I will
beseech thee not to cast me out utterly, but suffer me to be thy servant
and handmaid for a while. Wilt thou not?"

But the King stooped down to her and raised her up, and stood on his
feet, and took her hands and kissed them, and set her down beside him,
and said to her: "Sweetheart, this is now thy place till the night
cometh, even by my side."

So she sat down there meek and valiant, her hands laid in her lap, and
her feet one over the other; while the King said: "Lords, this is my
beloved, and my spouse. Now, therefore, if ye will have me for King, ye
must worship this one for Queen and Lady; or else suffer us both to go
our ways in peace."

Then all they that were in the chamber cried out aloud: "The Queen, the
Lady! The beloved of our lord!"

And this cry came from their hearts, and not their lips only; for as they
looked on her, and the brightness of her beauty, they saw also the
meekness of her demeanour, and the high heart of her, and they all fell
to loving her. But the young men of them, their cheeks flushed as they
beheld her, and their hearts went out to her, and they drew their swords
and brandished them aloft, and cried out for her as men made suddenly
drunk with love: "The Queen, the Lady, the lovely one!"

CHAPTER XXXV: OF THE KING OF STARK-WALL AND HIS QUEEN

But while this betid, that murmur without, which is aforesaid, grew
louder; and it smote on the King's ear, and he said again to the elder:
"Tell us now of that noise withoutward, what is it?"

Said the elder: "If thou, King, and the Queen, wilt but arise and stand
in the window, and go forth into the hanging gallery thereof, then shall
ye know at once what is this rumour, and therewithal shall ye see a sight
meet to rejoice the heart of a king new come into kingship."

So the King arose and took th