Chapter IX.
OF YWAIN'S JOURNEY BY NIGHT, AND HOW HE WAS BROUGHT BY A LADY TO THE PLACE OF HIS VISION, AND SO LEFT HER.

So Ywain turned him from his watching: and as he turned him he drew his breath again, and his heart rose and he took the path strongly among the heather. And he went therein a good two hour or more, until he saw upon his left side how the land rose up ridgewise like the back of a great hog: and for all that it was night, yet he saw the top of the ridge clearly, as it were a black line that ran along the sky. And thereover stood the moon all broad and yellow, and he perceived that this was the place of her setting, as the hermit had shown it to him by his counsel. Then he knew that it was hard on midnight, and he had great gladness because that he had come so far on his way and no time lost. And he left the heath and took a good road that was below the ridge, and for a little space the moon hung above him as it were a great lantern of yellow horn. And then she sank behind the ridge, and in no long time afterwards the land was dark. Nevertheless he ceased not to go swiftly and without stumbling, for the stars were now brighter before him, and the road under his feet was smooth and white with dust, so that he had no need to walk warily. And as he went he remembered all the words of the hermit, and he turned them over in his mind as a man turns over his money upon his hand: for it may chance that he knows not yet how much it is, or in what manner it may serve him. Even so Ywain considered the words of the hermit, and namely the two secrets: whereof one was plain to his understanding and one was dark. For he was of himself fully minded to follow his desire; but to serve another was no such matter, seeing that in his old life he had served both lords and over-lords, and for his wages had little but weariness. And in this wise he reasoned hotly as he went, speaking as it might have been to the hermit himself there present.

Then upon the instant his sight went from him, as it happens many times to those that reason hotly. And he saw no more the road beneath him nor the stars above, but by seeming he came again into the house in the rock, and there was the hermit sitting over against him, and his eyes shining in the twilight. And Ywain said to the hermit: What is this secret that you have told me, and how can a man both follow his desire and also serve another? For by his desire he would be free, but service is to freedom as water upon fire. And the semblance of the hermit looked at him and nodded kindly, but he answered nothing to Ywain’s questioning, save that he spoke again the former words. Then because of the hermit’s voice and the deepness of it and the quiet of his house, the tangle in Ywain’s heart was untwisted and he had no more lust of reasoning. And he came back as it were from another place, and perceived that he had been a long time absent, for the way was changed beneath his feet, and from being a high-road was become a green ox-drove, and the stars in the sky were few and pale.

Then Ywain saw that the night was far gone, and fear came suddenly upon him lest in his dreaming he should have wandered aside from the right way. And he stood still to peer about him, but he could see nothing save only the ox-drove and a little bank that was the border of it, and the field beyond the border. But while he stood still there came the sound of a cock crowing: and in the same instant he was aware of a tower that lay hard by, and it lay in the field all bare and open where he had looked before and had seen nothing, until the crowing of the cock. But now he could see it without peering, and how it stood on a little mound in the field, with a pool beside it and a great rowan-tree thereby.

Then he made to go to the tower, and when he came to the bank to pass out of the ox-drove he found a gate therein: and he looked over the gate and saw how there was a door opened in the tower, and a woman that came out from it, and she began to go towards him over the field. So he passed through the gate and went out to meet her. And as he went he perceived that she was some great one, for she was richly arrayed in colours all of blue, and her raiment was close about her as the sheath is about a flower. Also she wore a veil and not a hood, and the veil was upon her head only and not upon her face, and it was light and cloudy like smoke in still air.

And when they two drew together the lady bade Ywain good-morrow, and great wonder took hold upon him: for her voice came to him as it had been out of old memory, and whereas in her outward seeming there was nothing that was not strange to him, yet by her speaking he was persuaded heartily that he had known her all the years of his life. Then she asked him whither he went, and he began to tell her of the place of the stepping-stones and of the fighting beyond the water. And she heard him courteously, but while he spoke she ceased not to go forward, so that in short time they came again to the bank and the ox-drove.

And Ywain looked before him in the halflight, and again he was amazed: for the gate was there by which he had passed out, and beside it were two horses, a white and a black, and by their bridle-reins they were tethered to this post and to that. Then the lady came to the white horse, and she laid her hand upon the mane of him, and her one foot she gave into Ywain’s hand and so went to saddle and rode fast away. And Ywain took the black horse and followed hard after her: and they rode long and the sky lightened towards dawn, and they went ever faster and faster, till the wind rushed by their faces as a stream rushes by the stakes of a weir.

So they came to a wood and coasted it, for the trees of it were set so thick together that no horse might go therein: also the land fell sheer and sudden within it. And in a five furlongs more the lady stayed her galloping, and she leapt down and cast away her bridle-rein and turned her into the wood. And Ywain followed after her, and she caught him by the hand, and they two ran down the wood together with pain and stumbling. And they came to the edge of the wood, and the land there was level, and Ywain looked out between the trees and saw the place of his vision, for there before him was a meadow and a broad water with stepping-stones, and beyond the water was a bank. And upon the top of the bank there went a banner, with men fighting about it: but child there was none to see, neither upon the stones neither upon the bank.

Then Ywain raged within himself to go forward, but first he turned him of his courtesy to give thanks to the lady, for he said that without help of her he had never come there: whereby he was wholly bounden to her, if that she would command him in anything. And she looked him in the eyes and said to him: Yea, sir, are you so bounden? Then have I found a friend to my need: for I have a hundred knights that are sworn of my allegiance, yet there is none of them that serveth not his own desire before mine.

Then despair came upon Ywain, as upon a wild thing that is trapped, and he struggled blindly and saw no way out. And in his struggling he heard the sound of a horn that was blown behind him, and he turned about and perceived him that blew it standing upon the height of the bank. And at the blare of that horn all the blood of his body was made fire, and he left the lady alone and went furiously up to go into the battle.