f. Dost know what it is,
little maid?"

"No, Mistress, in good sooth."

"How earnest by it? 'Tis a part of a book."

"My mother, that is dead, charged me to keep it; for it was all she had
for to give me. I know not, in very deed, whether it be Charlemagne or
Arthur"--the only two books of which poor Maude had ever heard. "But
an' I could meet with one that wist to read, and that were my true
friend, I would fain cause her to tell me what I would know thereabout."

"And hast no true friend?" inquired the lady.

"Not one," said Maude sorrowfully.

"Well, little maid, I can read, and I would be thy true friend. What is
it thou wouldst fain know?"

"Why," said Maude, in an interested tone, "whether the great knight, of
whose mighty deeds this book doth tell, should win his 'trothed love at
the last, or no."

For the novel-reader of the fourteenth century was not very different
from the novel-reader of the nineteenth. The lady smiled, but grew
grave again directly. She sat down in one of the cushioned
window-seats, keeping Maude's treasured leaf in her hand.

"List, little maid, and thou shalt hear--that the great Knight, of whose
mighty prowess this book doth tell, shall win His 'trothed love at
last."

And she began to read--very different words from any Maude expected.
The child listened, entranced.

"And I saigh [saw] newe heuene and newe erthe; for the firste heuene and
the firste erthe wenten awei; and the see is not now. And I ioon [John]
saigh the hooli citee ierusalim newe comynge doun fro heuene maad redi
of god as a wyf ourned to hir husbonde. And I herde a greet voice fro
the trone seiynge [saying], lo a tabernacle of god is with men, and he
schal dwelle with hem, and thei schulen be his peple, and he, god with
hem, schal be her [their] god. And god schal wipe awei ech teer fro the
ighen [eyes] of hem, and deeth schal no more be, neithir mournyng
neither criyng neither sorewe schal be ouer, whiche thing is firste
[first things] wenten awei. And he seide that sat in the trone, lo I
make alle thingis newe. And he seide to me, write thou, for these
wordis ben [are] moost feithful and trewe. And he seide to me, it is
don, I am alpha and oo [omega] the bigynnyng and ende, I schal ghyue
[give] freli of the welle of quyk [quick, living] water to him that
thirstith. He that schal ouercome schal welde [possess] these thingis,
and I schal be god to him, and he schal be sone to me. But to ferdf