Chapter XXXI.
HOW YWAIN MET WITH A SHEPHERDESS AND HEARD A MUSIC, AND HOW HE HAD SIGHT OF ALADORE THE FIRST TIME.

THUS began Ywain to be consorted with fauns, and to live after their manner: and he slept with them that night in a little wildwood fast by a river. And before they slept they gave him to eat of such things as they had: and truly his supper was no feast. For the fauns live all by nuts and by grains, and have no bread: also they will taste flesh but they know not the use of fire. So on the morrow early they caught a good fish and tore it: and when they perceived that Ywain loved not raw meat, then they had pity on him. And they left the river and brought him to a shepherd’s hut, and they made him understand that he should go nearer and knock upon the door. For they knew that where there were men, there belike would be men’s meat, whether of bread or of flesh.

So Ywain came to the hut, and knocked upon the door: but he heard no voice within. And when he would have knocked again a second time he dared not: for he knew that there stood one within and listened silently. Then he devised to speak instead of to knock: and he spoke the greeting of a pilgrim, humbly. And while he was yet speaking the door was opened, and there was there a young shepherdess standing upon the threshold. And when he saw her his heart began to beat furiously: and the beating of it upon his ribs was like the galloping of a horse upon a green road. For the shepherdess stood looking at him out of youth and fearfulness: but the face was the face of his lady and of no woman else. Then his voice changed, and he spoke again to her trembling: but she nodded with her head and answered not. And she put forth her hand to bring him in, and he perceived that it was brown and hard, and he looked again and saw how her face also was brown as with the burning of one summer upon another. Then he said within himself: My lady was never so: yet if this be not her body it is her soul, and in all her shapes I am to serve and follow her.

Then the shepherdess gave him to eat: and that which she gave him was no rich man’s portion. But without doubt she changed it in the giving: for the bread was fine bread between his teeth, and the flesh was as the flesh of swans and peacocks. And while he ate she looked upon him, and he also looked upon her: and he ate but little by reason of his looking and his delight. And when she perceived this she forsook him suddenly and went out: and immediately his hunger increased upon him and he dealt shortly with all that she had given him. Then she came again suddenly, and looked upon the bare board, and laughed: but in all this time she Spoke not one word, so that Ywain marvelled and was some deal discomfited.

Then he called her by her name, Aithne: but thereto she shook her head and continued saying no word. And he said to her: What do you in this place, and by what name shall I call you? And again she answered not, but she took two shepherd’s crooks that stood behind the door of the hut, and one of them she kept and one she gave into his hand, and so led him forth. And they came together to the sheepstead and untied the wattled cotes, and loosed the sheep: and together they went hillward in the cool of the morning.

Now as they went together Ywain looked about him, and he saw the fauns that were his friends: and they stood beside the valley road in a place whereto Ywain should come presently. And he called to them joyfully, and they heard him calling: so that he hoped they would have stayed for him. But when he was now within a pitch of them, he saw how they were suddenly gone away: for they ran swiftly from him towards their wildwood, and the reeds of the river hid them as they ran. Yet they went not with one mind or one fear: for one of them stayed in his running and returned. And Ywain had sight of him among the willows, peering with bright eyes: and he perceived that he was stealing fast upon them, and going from tree to tree. And when they were at the turning of the road, where they must leave the valley and go upon the hill, then the reeds rustled and crackled beside the road: and the faun broke forth suddenly upon them, and he was that one that was the younger of the two. And he looked no more upon Ywain but upon the shepherdess only: and he stooped down and took her hand and nosed in it lovingly as a deer will nose in the hand of her that feeds him. And Ywain spoke to him by his name: but thereat he started up and went leaping after his fellow, and rustling like a wind among the reeds.

Then the shepherdess led Ywain forth upon the hill, and behind them was the river and before them was the little beechen grove. And they came to the grove and sat within the shade of it and looked over the valley: and the sheep went cropping the wild thyme and the milkwort, and clanking pleasantly with their bells. And the shepherdess looked downward upon Ywain, for he lay before her at her feet: and he turned and looked upward into her eyes. And as he looked the day went over him in a moment of time, between two beats of his heart: and he lacked speech of her no longer, for he dreamed under her silence as a man may dream under a starry night.

Then she rose and led him again downward: and the sheep went down before them to the river, and fell to drinking greedily. And as they drank the wind of evening came softly down the stream, and upon it came a sound of piping: and Ywain’s heart ached to hear that piping, for it was of a sad and piercing sweetness. Then his feet began to move beneath him, and he left the sheep to their drinking and went toward the music. And he came to a glassy pool among the rocks: and upon the rocks was the young faun sitting, and playing on his pipes, and under his feet was the evening sky, shown clearly upon the water of the pool.

And Ywain came near, for the music drew him strongly: and he stood and looked upon the pool, and he saw the sky therein. And he saw it not as sky but as a great region of the sea: for the clouds upon it were like lands of earth, and they lay there after the fashion of bays and heads and islands. And there was a coast that lay fast by him, as it were beneath his very feet: and it ran to the right of him and to the left, and beyond it was the void space of the sea. And as he looked upon the coast he knew it well: for he stood by seeming upon the High Steep of Paladore, and looked out over the Shepherdine Sands.

Then with the beauty of the place he fell to longing, and because of the music that he heard his heart was restless: and he desired greatly to be seeking for the land wherefrom that music came. And in a moment it was there before him, beyond the void space of the sea. And the form of it was as the form of Paladore, with the city and the steep all fashioned out of cloud: but it lay lonely and far out, like an island of the West. And a light was upon it more delectable than all the lights of sunset, so that it seemed to burn also in the eyes of him that saw it: and the light and the music increased together, and together they faded and ceased. And when they ceased Ywain turned him aside to weep, for he perceived that he was homeless.

But as he turned he saw his lady beside him standing, and she spoke and called him by his name as one that knew him afresh and was no more bedumbed. And he cast himself into her arms and kissed her: for he knew that he had had sight of no earthly city but of Aladore. Then he looked again upon the pool, if by fortune he might see that city again: and he saw but a ripple on the water, for with his hoof the faun had dabbled it.