" "Go now, sire, and may He
protect you who gives and distributes all good things."
(Vv. 5347-5456.) Then he went until he came to the hall where he
found no one, good or bad, to address him. Then he and his
companion passed through the house until they came to a garden.
They never spoke of, or mentioned, stabling their horses. But
what matters it? For those who considered them already as their
own had stabled them carefully. I do not know whether their
expectation was wise, for the horses' owners are still perfectly
hale. The horses, however, have oats and hay, and stand in
litter up to their belly. My lord Yvain and his company enter
the garden. There he sees, reclining upon his elbow upon a
silken rug, a gentleman, to whom a maiden was reading from a
romance about I know not whom. There had come to recline there
with them and listen to the romance a lady, who was the mother of
the damsel, as the gentleman was her father; they had good reason
to enjoy seeing and hearing her, for they had no other children.
She was not yet sixteen years old, and was so fair and full of
grace that the god of Love would have devoted himself entirely to
her service, if he had seen her, and would never have made her
fall in love with anybody except himself.
Pages:
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554