Keeping Tryst: A Tale of King Arthur's Time Page 3

walls that held him in.

  The dwarfs from time to time peered through the slatted window overheadand mocked him, pointing with their crooked thumbs.

  "Ha! ha! Thou'lt keep no tryst," they chattered. "But if thou'lt swearupon thy oath to go back to the joyous garden, and hark no more forMerlin's call, we'll let thee loose from out this Dungeon of thyDisappointment."

  Then was Ederyn tempted, for the dungeon was foul indeed, and his heartcried out to go back to the lily maiden. But once more in his ears hethrust his fingers and cried:

  "'To the king's call alone I'll list! Oh, heart and hand of mine, keep tryst-- Keep tryst or die!'"

  On the third night, with the quiet of despair he threw him prone uponthe dungeon floor and held his peace, no longer gnawing on his thongs orbeating on the rock. A single moonbeam straggled through the slattedwindow, and by its light he saw a spider spinning out a web. Then,looking dully around, he saw the dungeon was hung thick with other webs,foul with the dust of years. Great festoons of the cobweb film shroudedhis prison walls. As up and down the hairy creature swung itself uponits thread, the hopeless eyes of Ederyn followed it.

  All in a twinkling he saw how he might profit by the spider's teaching,and clapped his hand across his mouth to keep from shouting out his joyso that the dwarfs could hear. Now once more like a madman rushing atthe walls, he tore down all the dusty webs, and twisted them together inlong strands. These strands he braided in thick ropes and tied them,knotting them and twisting and doubling once again. All the while hekept bewailing the stupid way in which he wasted time. "Three days ago Imight have quit this den," he sighed, "had I but used the means thatlay at hand. Full well I knew that heaven always finds a way to help theman who helps himself. No creature lives too mean to be of service, andeven dungeon walls must harbour help for him who boldly grasps the firstthing that he sees and makes it serve him."

  So fast and furiously he worked that, long before the moonbeam faded,his cobweb rope was strong enough to bear his weight, and long enough toreach twice over to the slatted window overhead. By many trials he atlast succeeded in throwing it around a spike that barred the window,and, climbing up, he forced the slats apart and clambered through. Thentying the rope's end to the window, he slid down all the dizzycliffside in which the dwarfs had dug the dungeon, and dropped into thestream that ran below.

  Lo, when he looked around him it was dawn. Midsummer morn it was, and,plunging through the wood, he heard the lark's song rise, and reachedthe palace gate just as it opened to the blare of trumpets for theking's train to ride forth. When Ederyn saw the royal cavalcade, heshrunk back into the wayside bushes, so ill-befitting did it seem thathe should come before the king in tattered garments, with blood upon hishands where the sharp rocks had cut, and with foul dungeon stains.

  But that the king might know he'd ever proven faithful, he sank upon hisknees and bared his breast at his approach. There all the pledgesglistened in the sunlight, in rainbow hues. There Pain had dropped herheart's blood in a glittering ruby, and Honour set her seal upon him ina golden star. A diamond gleamed where Sorrow's tear had fallen, andamethysts glowed now with purple splendour to mark his patient meetingwith Defeat. But mostly were the pledges little pearls for littleduties faithfully performed; and there they shone, and, as the peoplegazed, they saw the jewels take the shape of letters, so that the kingread out before them all, "_Semper fidelis_."

  Then drew the king his royal sword and lightly smote on Ederyn'sshoulder, and cried: "Arise, Sir Knight, Sir Ederyn the Trusty. Since Imay trust thee to the utmost in little things as well as great, sincethou of all men art most worthy, henceforth by thy king's heart thoushalt ride, ever to be his faithful guard and comrade."

  So there before them all he did him honour, and ordered that a prancingsteed be brought and a good sword buckled on his side.

  Thus Ederyn won his sovereign's favour. Soon, by his sovereign's gracepermitted, he went back to the joyous garden to woo the lily maiden.When he had won his bride and borne her to the palace, then was hisgreat reward complete for all his years of fealty to his vow. Then outinto the world he went to guard his king. Henceforth blazoned on hisshield and helmet he bore the crest--a heart with hand that grasped aspear, and, underneath, these words:

  "_I keep the tryst!_"

  THE END.