Forsooth that is a
grief unto me, as I suppose unto you is it a greater one. But unto
me also were it heavier but that my heart tells me it shall not ever
be so; for as I said to you some days agone, I have a hope that we
shall yet meet again, be it in Utterhay or in some other place. And
now I pray you to pardon me wherein I may have done amiss unto you,
and begrudge it not that there be others, who indeed were first-
comers in regard to you, and whom I love better than you; for of your
truth and your good-will and loving-kindness will I bear witness
wheresoever I may be.
Then spake Gerard: Do ye speak, my sons; for I have no grudge
against her, nor aught to bewail me as to her, save, it may be, that
I am now so well on in years that it may well befall that I shall not
live till the time of the meeting in Utterhay. But I will pray thee
this, dear lady, that if thou come to the place where I lie dead thou
wilt kiss my burial-stone, and sing due masses for me. Nay, she
said, but this is the worst shall betide betwixt us.
Then spake Robert Gerardson: I am not deft of speech, but this
parting makes me bold to say this: that from the time when first I
set eyes on thee I have loved thee in such wise that never mayst thou
love me as much as I love thee, if thou hast anywhere, as I deem thou
hast, a lover of thy body, whom thou lovest.
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