CHAPTER XXXIII. VIRIDIS TELLETH THE TALE OF THEIR SEEKING
Now came they back to where were the three others, and Viridis was
quite come to herself and ran to meet her man, and he took her in his
arms and caressed her sweetly; and then he turned to Birdalone, and
spared no sign of friendly love to her; and Arthur, for his part, did
so much for Aurea and Viridis. No long tale there was between them
for that while, for they would busk them to be gone. But first they
dug a grave for those two poor men who had been slain by the felons,
and prayed for them. As for the caitiffs who lay slain there, one
score and two of them, they left them for the wolves to devour, and
the tearing of the kites and crows; nor meddled they with any of
their gear or weapons. But they speedily found Hugh's raiment, and
his pouch, wherein was money good store; and they found also rings
and ouches and girdles, which had been torn from the damsels in the
first rage of their taking.
First though, when they had gathered together such horses as they
needed, and let the rest run wild, Birdalone brought her she-friends
down into the dale, and did them to bathe in a pool of the stream,
and tended them as if she were their tire-woman, so that they were
mightily refreshed; and she made garlands for them of the woodland
flowers, as eglantine and honeysuckle; and herself, she bathed her,
and did not on her battle-gear again, but clad her body in her
woman's array.
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