her came
the fairest of the honourable damsels, and were fain of being her waiting-
women. Therewithal the King was unarmed, and dight most gloriously, but
still he bore the Sword of the King's Slaying: and sithence were the King
and the Queen brought into the great hall of the palace, and they met on
the dais, and kissed before the lords and other folk that thronged the
hall. There they ate a morsel and drank a cup together while all beheld
them; and then they were brought forth, and a white horse of the
goodliest, well bedight, brought for each of them, and thereon they
mounted and went their ways together, by the lane which the huge throng
made for them, to the great church, for the hallowing and the crowning;
and they were led by one squire alone, and he unarmed; for such was the
custom of Stark-wall when a new king should be hallowed: so came they to
the great church (for that folk was not miscreant, so to say), and they
entered it, they two alone, and went into the choir: and when they had
stood there a little while wondering at their lot, they heard how the
bells fell a-ringing tunefully over their heads; and then drew near the
sound of many trumpets blowing together, and thereafter the voices of
many folk singing; and then were the great doors thrown open, and the
bishop and his priests came into the church with singing and minstrelsy,
and thereafter came the whole throng of the folk, and presently the nave
of the church was filled by it, as when the water follows the cutting of
the dam, and fills up the dyke. Thereafter came the bishop and his mates
into the choir, and came up to the King, and gave him and the Queen the
kiss of peace. This was mass sung gloriously; and thereafter was the
King anointed and crowned, and great joy was made throughout the church.
Afterwards they went back afoot to the palace, they two alone together,
with none but the esquire going before to show them the way. And as they
went, they passed close beside those two neighbours, whose talk has been
told of afore, and the first one, he who had praised the King's
war-array, spake and said: "Truly, neighbour, thou art in the right of
it; and now the Queen has been dight duly, and hath a crown on her head,
and is clad in white samite done all over with pearls, I see her to be of
exceeding goodliness; as goodly, maybe, as the Lord King."

Quoth the other: "Unto me she seemeth as she did e'en now; she is clad in
white, as then she was, an