"Dame, je n'ose,
Flors d'aiglentier et lis et rose,
En qui li filz Diex se repose,"
and so on. Or, in other wording: "Hearken, O gracious Lady! thou that art more fair than any flower of the eglantine, more comely than the blossoming of the rose or of the lily! thou to whom was confided the very Son of God! Hearken, for I am afraid! afford counsel to me that am ensnared by Satan and know not what to do! Never will I make an end of praying. O Virgin débonnaire! O honored Lady! Thou that wast once a woman—!"
You would have said the boy was dying; and in sober verity a deal of Miguel de Rueda died upon this night of clearer vision.
Yet he sang the next day as these two rode southward, although half as in defiance.
Sang Miguel:
"And still, whate'er the years may send—
Though Time be proven a fickle friend,
And Love be shown a liar—
I must adore until the end
That primal heart's desire.
"I may not 'hear men speak of her
Unmoved, and vagrant pulses stir
Whene'er she passes by,
And I again her worshipper
Must serve her till I die.
"Not she that is doth pass, but she
That Time hath riven away from me
And in the darkness set—
The maid that I may never see,
Or gain, or e'er forget."
It was on the following day, near Bazas, these two encountered Adam de Gourdon, a Provençal knight, with whom the Prince fought for a long while, without either contestant giving way; and in consequence a rendezvous was fixed for the November of that year, and afterward the Prince and de Gourdon parted, highly pleased with each other.
Thus the Prince and his attendant came, in late September, to Mauléon, on the Castilian frontier, and dined there at the Fir Cone. Three or four lackeys were about—some exalted person's retinue? Prince Edward hazarded to the swart little landlord as the Prince and Miguel lingered over the remnants of their meal.