gold and flowers upon a silken pillow, crying, "You have won this,
you unknown, unseen champion, and it is your right to give it where you
will; and none will dispute her supremacy in beauty for ever." And as
he strode and knelt to receive the crown she added quickly, "And I know
not whether the promise has reached your ears which yesterday was
made--that she who accepts the crown is to wed the victor, although he
choose the Queen herself to wear it."

And she smiled down at him like morning smiling out of the sky; and her
beauty was such as to make a man forget all other beauty and all
resolutions. But Harding took the crown from her and touched her hand
with the rusty brow of his casque and said, "A Queen will wear it, for
my lady's fathers were once Kings of Amberley."

Then Maudlin stamped her foot as a butterfly might, and cried, "Where
is this lady whom you keep as hidden as your face?"

And Harding rose and turned towards the gateway, and all turned with
him; and into the arch rode Rosalind on the white hart. And she was
clothed from her neck to the soles of her naked feet in a sheath of
silver that seemed molded to her lovely body; and about her waist a
golden girdle hung, set with green stones, and from her finger a great
emerald shot green fire, and on her head a golden fillet lay in the
likeness of close-set leaves with clusters of gleaming green berries
that were other emeralds; and under it her glory of hair fell like
liquid metal down her back and over the hart's neck, as low as her
silver hem. And the hart with its splendid antlers stood motionless and
proud as though it knew it carried a young Queen. But indeed men
wondered whether it were not a young goddess. And so for a very few
moments this carven vision of gold and silver and ivory and molten
bronze and copper and green jewels stood in their gaze. And then
Harding bore the crown to her and knelt, and stood up again and crowned
her before them all; and laying his hand upon the white hart's neck,
moved away with it and its beautiful rider through the gateway. And no
one moved or spoke or tried to stop them. But by the footway over the
water-meadows they went, and at the river's edge found Harding's broad
flat boat with the bird's beak. And Harding said, "Will you come over
the ferry with me, Proud Rosalind?"

And Rosalind answered, "What is your fee, Red Boatman?"

Then Harding answered, "For that which flows I take only that which
flows."

An