Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/36

 28 said to his daughter, "Maiden, thou shouldst be at one with this knight; do him great honour; I have none better." Right glad was the maiden, and she rose and called Eliduc, and they sat afar off from the others, and she dared say no word to him, and he feared to speak to her. But at last their mutual love was fully told.

Now the King of Lesser Britain being hard-pressed by his foes, repented him of the injustice he had done Eliduc and sent to him, begging his aid and service. Eliduc could not refuse his first lord. But when he came to speak to Guilliadun, at the first word she swooned, and he lamenting, and ofttimes kissing her mouth, and weeping sorely, "Sweet my friend," said he, "you are my life and death; you have my faith, and I will surely return." So Guilliadun yielded, and with many a kiss and vow the lovers parted.

All in his land were overjoyed to see Eliduc, above all his wife. But he was ever sad for his love's sake, and nothing that he saw yielded him joy. This grieved his wife's heart, and she often asked him if he had heard aught to her disfavour.

So the time went by until Eliduc should return to Guilliadun, as he had promised. He passed over secretly into England, and carried her off at nightfall. But when they were got on the high seas, and were nigh the coast, the wind rose, and the masts were broken, and the sails torn. Prayers to the saints and to the Virgin were of no avail, so that at last a squire cried, "What boots it, Lord, to pray? have we not here the cause of our peril. Never may we come to land, so being that you, with wedded wife at home, are carrying this one with you against God and law, against right and loyal dealing." But when Guilliadun heard these words she fell fainting and colourless, and in that state did she remain. Eliduc having flung the squire into the sea, seized the helm, and brought the ship to land. Then bethinking himself where he might find a fitting burial-place for the body of his love, still deeming her to be dead, he minded him of a hermit who dwelt hard by in a great