[458]
“Dear friends, if with your tidings you have not me betrayed,
And do not tell me falsely that you have seen the maid
Near to my land and kingdom, and in my friends’ safe-keeping,
For your tale will I reward you, and gladly will your praise be ever speaking.”
[459]
They said: “No lie we tell you, that we the maid have seen;
But when we miles had measured, the daughter of the queen
Sadly said, for our welfare she feared, and was heavy-hearted,
Lest the king, her father, to follow with his ships e’en then had started.”