But now when they came to the water-gate, there verily was the
Sending Boat just coming to hand; and in the stern stood the three
knights together, all clad in their armour, and before them sat three
lovely ladies, clad one in gold, one in green, and one in black: and
lo, there was the Quest come home.
CHAPTER II. NOW ASK THEY OF BIRDALONE, AND SIR LEONARD SPEAKS
Now the prow touched the stones of the stair, and folk were busy to
lay hold of it that the wayfarers might land, but Sir Baudoin cried
out in a great voice: Let none be so hardy as to touch this ferry,
either now or hereafter; for there is peril therein. And therewith
he took Aurea by the hand, and led her out of the boat and up the
stair, and she all joyous and wondering; and thereafter came Hugh and
his darling, and last of all Arthur and Atra, and she alone of the
three women looked downcast, and her eyes wandered about the throng
that was before them there, as though she sought something, yet
feared to see it.
But when they were all standing together on the landing-plain, and
the folk were all about them in a ring, Sir Baudoin spake to the
castellan and said: Sir Aymeris, thee and other folk I see here, the
sight of whom doth me great joy; but where, I pray thee, is the lady,
our friend Birdalone, by whom it is that all we are come happily
hither? And he looked around with an anxious face; but Arthur was as
pale as ashes, yet he spake nought, and Atra let her hand fall away
from his.
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