Said the chief of them: Nay, lord, no reward may we take, save
a token from thee that thou art content with us. What token shall it
be? said Hugh. Quoth the way-leader: That each of us kiss the Lady
Birdalone on the mouth, for she it is that is verily our mistress
under our great mistress.
Laughed Hugh thereat, but the men laughed not; then spake Hugh: This
must be at the lady's own will. Even so, said they.
Then Hugh brought Birdalone thither and told her what was toward, and
she consented to the kiss with a good will, and said to each of the
men after they had kissed her: Herewith goeth my love to the
mistress and queen of the woods; do ye bear the same unto her. And
thereafter those way-leaders fared back into the woods.
Now they gather themselves together and go down toward Utterhay, and
make a brave show, what with the sumpter-horses, and the goodly array
of the four ladies, and the glittering war-gear of the men-at-arms;
and Sir Hugh and Sir Arthur displayed their pennons as they went.
All this saw the warders on the wall of Utterhay; and they told the
captain of the porte, and he came up on to the wall, and a man with
him; and when he saw this bright company coming forth from the wood,
he bade men to him, two score of them, all weaponed, and he did on
his armour, and rode out-a-gates with them to meet those new-comers;
and this he did, not because he did not see them to be but few, but
because they came forth out of Evilshaw, and then doubted if they
were trustworthy.
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