Beltane the Smith

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ginny Brewer and PG Distributed
Proofreaders
Jeffery Farnol
London, August, 1915.
Thus Helen the Proud, the Beautiful, yielded her lips to his
Now did she look on him 'neath drooping lash, sweet-eyed and languorous
Beltane stood up armed in shining mail from head to foot
So came Winfrida, and falling on her knee gave the goblet into her lady's hand
She stared and stared beyond Sir Gui, to behold one clad as a dusty miller
Her eyes swept him with look calm and most dispassionate
In a glade of the forest, yet not so far but that one might hear the chime of bells stealing across the valley from the great minster of Mortain on a still evening, dwelt Beltane the Smith.
Alone he lived in the shadow of the great trees, happy when the piping of the birds was in his ears, and joying to listen to the plash and murmur of the brook that ran merrily beside his hut; or pausing 'twixt the strokes of his ponderous hammer to catch its never failing music.