"William Morris - The Wood Beyond the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris William)

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small wood betwixt them; so now he passed through the thicket, and, coming to the edge thereof,
beheld the Lady and the King’s Son walking together hand in hand, full lovingly by seeming.


He deemed it unmeet to draw back and hide him, so he went forth past them toward the house.
The King’s Son scowled on him as he passed, but the Lady, over whose beauteous face flickered
the joyous morning smiles, took no more heed of him than if he had been one of the trees of the
wood. But she had been so high and disdainful with him the evening before, that he thought little
of that. The twain went on, skirting the hazel-copse, and he could not choose but turn his eyes on
them, so sorely did the Lady’s beauty draw them. Then befell another thing; for behind them the
boughs of the hazels parted, and there stood that little evil thing, he or another of his kind; for he
was quite unclad, save by his fell of yellowy-brown hair, and that he was girt with a leathern
girdle, wherein was stuck an ugly two-edged knife: he stood upright a moment, and cast his eyes
at Walter and grinned, but not as if he knew him; and scarce could Walter say whether it were
the one he had seen, or another: then he cast himself down on his belly, and fell to creeping
through the long grass like a serpent, following the footsteps of the Lady and her lover; and now,
as he crept, Walter deemed, in his loathing, that the creature was liker to a ferret than aught else.
He crept on marvellous swiftly, and was soon clean out of sight. But Walter stood staring after
him for a while, and then lay down by the copse-side, that he might watch the house and the
entry thereof; for he thought, now perchance presently will the kind maiden come hither to
comfort me with a word or two. But hour passed by hour, and still she came not; and still he lay
there, and thought of the Maid, and longed for her kindness and wisdom, till he could not refrain
his tears, and wept for the lack of her. Then he arose, and went and sat in the porch, and was very
downcast of mood.


But as he sat there, back comes the Lady again, the King’s Son leading her by the hand; they
entered the porch, and she passed by him so close that the odour of her raiment filled all the air
about him, and the sleekness of her side nigh touched him, so that he could not fail to note that
her garments were somewhat disarrayed, and that she kept her right hand (for her left the King’s
Son held) to her bosom to hold the cloth together there, whereas the rich raiment had been torn
off from her right shoulder. As they passed by him, the King’s Son once more scowled on him,
wordless, but even more fiercely than before; and again the Lady heeded him nought.



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After they had gone on a while, he entered the hall, and found it empty from end to end, and no
sound in it save the tinkling of the fountain; but there was victual set on the board. He ate and
drank thereof to keep life lusty within him, and then went out again to the wood-side to watch
and to long; and the time hung heavy on his hands because of the lack of the fair Maiden.


He was of mind not to go into the house to his rest that night, but to sleep under the boughs of
the forest. But a little after sunset he saw a bright-clad image moving amidst the carven images
of the porch, and the King’s Son came forth and went straight to him, and said: “Thou art to
enter the house, and go into thy chamber forthwith, and by no means to go forth of it betwixt
sunset and sunrise. My Lady will not away with thy prowling round the house in the night-tide.”