The Haystack in the Floods

Had she come all the way for this,

To part at last without a kiss?

Yea, had she borne the dirt and rain

That her own eyes might see him slain

Beside the haystack in the floods?

Along the dripping leafless woods,

The stirrup touching either shoe,

She rode astride as troopers do;

With kirtle kilted to her knee,

To which the mud splash’d wretchedly;

And the wet dripp’d from every tree

Upon her head and heavy hair,

And on her eyelids broad and fair;

The tears and rain ran down her face.

By fits and starts they rode apace,

And very often was his place

Far off from her; he had to ride

Ahead, to see what might betide

When the roads cross’d; and sometimes, when

There rose a murmuring from his men,

Had to turn back with promises.

Ah me! she had but little ease;

And often for pure doubt and dread

She sobb’d, made giddy in the head

By the swift riding; while, for cold,

Her slender fingers scarce could hold

The wet reins; yea, and scarcely, too,

She felt the foot within her shoe

Against the stirrup: all for this,

To part at last without a kiss

Beside the haystack in the floods.

For when they near’d that old soak’d hay,

They saw across the only way

That Judas, Godmar, and the three

Red running lions dismally

Grinn’d from his pennon, under which

In one straight line along the ditch,

They counted thirty heads.

So then,

While Robert turn’d round to his men,

She saw at once the wretched end,

And, stooping down, tried hard to rend

Her coif the wrong way from her head,

And hid her eyes; while Robert said:

Nay, love, ’tis scarcely two to one,

At Poictiers where we made them run

So fast: why, sweet my love, good cheer,

The Gascon frontier is so near,

Nought after this.

But: O! she said,

My God! my God! I have to tread

The long way back without you; then

The court at Paris; those six men;

The gratings of the Chatelet;

The swift Seine on some rainy day

Like this, and people standing by,

And laughing, while my weak hands try

To recollect how strong men swim.

All this, or else a life with him,

For which I should be damned at last,

Would God that this next hour were past!

He answer’d not, but cried his cry,

St. George for Marny! cheerily;

And laid his hand upon her rein.

Alas! no man of all his train

Gave back that cheery cry again;

And, while for rage his thumb beat fast

Upon his sword-hilt, some one cast

About his neck a kerchief long,

And bound him.

Then they went along

To Godmar; who said: Now, Jehane,

Your lover’s life is on the wane

So fast, that, if this very hour

You yield not as my paramour,

He will not see the rain leave off:

Nay, keep your tongue from gibe and scoff

Sir Robert, or I slay you now.

She laid her hand upon her brow,

Then gazed upon the palm, as though

She thought her forehead bled, and: No!

She said, and turn’d her head away,

As there were nothing else to say,

And everything were settled: red

............