Page:Of Six Mediaeval Women (1913).djvu/80

 precious to us." Yes, it is this all-pervading mystery which, though so tantalising, is yet so attractive. It is in vain that, in studying them, we try to penetrate somewhat beyond our normal atmosphere, for we only find ourselves lost in vague possibilities and hazy distances. Brittany has kept her secret concerning such of these lays as were hers just as jealously as she has kept her secret of the long avenues of great lichened stones which make Carnac look like the burial-place of some giant host. Marie's lays are stories of deep meaning, which each reader must interpret for himself.

It is impossible to do more here than just touch upon Marie's ideal conception of love, for to realise it fully it is necessary to read the stories themselves. Allusion has been made to the wounded knight in the "Lay of Guigemar," who can only be healed through mutual love sanctified by mutual suffering. In the lay of "The Ash Tree" a maiden of noble birth, abandoned in infancy and brought up in a convent, is loved by a lord, and returns his love, and goes with him to his castle. After a time the knights who owe him fealty complain that as through his love for his mistress he has neither wife nor child, he does them wrong, and protest that if he does not wed some noble lady, they will no longer serve him or hold him for