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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Haystack in the Floods</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Had she come all the way for this,<br>To part at last without a kiss?<br>Yea, had she borne the dirt and rain<br>That her own eyes might see him slain<br>Beside the haystack in the floods?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Along the dripping leafless woods,<br>The stirrup touching either shoe,<br>She rode astride as troopers do;<br>With kirtle kilted to her knee,<br>To which the mud splash'd wretchedly;<br>And the wet dripp'd from every tree<br>Upon her head and heavy hair,<br>And on her eyelids broad and fair;<br>The tears and rain ran down her face.<br>By fits and starts they rode apace,<br>And very often was his place<br>Far off from her; he had to ride<br>Ahead, to see what might betide<br>When the roads cross'd; and sometimes, when<br>There rose a murmuring from his men<br>Had to turn back with promises;<br>Ah me! she had but little ease;<br>And often for pure doubt and dread<br>She sobb'd, made giddy in the head<br>By the swift riding; while, for cold,<br>Her slender fingers scarce could hold<br>The wet reins; yea, and scarcely, too,<br>She felt the foot within her shoe<br>Against the stirrup: all for this,<br>To part at last without a kiss<br>Beside the haystack in the floods.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For when they near'd that old soak'd hay,<br>They saw across the only way<br>That Judas, Godmar, and the three<br>Red running lions dismally<br>Grinn'd from his pennon, under which<br>In one straight line along the ditch,<br>They counted thirty heads.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So then<br>While Robert turn'd round to his men<br>She saw at once the wretched end,<br>And, stooping down, tried hard to rend<br>Her coif the wrong way from her head,<br>And hid her eyes; while Robert said:<br>"Nay, love, 'tis scarcely two to one,<br>At Poictiers where we made them run<br>So fast--why, sweet my love, good cheer,<br>The Gascon frontier is so near.<br>Naught after this."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But, "Oh!" she said,<br>"My God! my God! I have to tread<br>The long way back without you; then<br>The court at Paris; those six men;<br>The gratings of the Chatelet;<br>The swift Seine on some rainy day<br>Like this, and people standing by<br>And laughing, while my weak hands try<br>To recollect how strong men swim.<br>All this, or else a life with him,<br>For which I should be damned at last.<br>Would God that this next hour were past!"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">He answer'd not, but cried his cry,<br>"St. George for Marny!" cheerily;<br>And laid his hand upon her rein.<br>Alas! no man of all his train<br>Gave back that cheery cry again;<br>And, while for rage his thumb beat fast<br>Upon his sword-hilts, some one cast<br>About his neck a kerchief long,<br>And bound him.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then they went along<br>To Godmar; who said: "Now, Jehane,<br>Your lover's life is on the wane<br>So fast, that, if this very hour<br>You yield not as my paramour,<br>He will not see the rain leave off--<br>Nay, keep your tongue from gibe or scoff,<br>Sir Robert, or I slay you now."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">She laid her hand upon her brow,<br>Then gazed upon the palm, as though<br>She thought her forehead bled, and--"No!"<br>She said, and turn'd her head away,<br>As there were nothing else to say,<br>And everything were settled: red<br>Grew Godmar's face from chin to head:<br>"Jehane, on yonder hill there stands<br>My castle, guarding well my lands:<br>What hinders me from taking you,<br>And doing that I list to do<br>To your fair wilful body, while<br>Your knight lies dead?"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A wicked smile<br>Wrinkled her face, her lips grew thin,<br>A long way out she thrust her chin:<br>"You know that I would strangle you<br>While you were sleeping; or bite through<br>Your throat, by God's help--ah!" she said,<br>"Lord Jesus, pity your poor maid!<br>For in such wise they hem me in,<br>I cannot choose but sin and sin,<br>Whatever happens: yet I think<br>They could not make me eat or drink,<br>And so should I just reach my rest."<br>"Nay, if you do not my behest,<br>O Jehane! though I love you well,"<br>Said Godmar, "would I fail to tell<br>All that I know?" "Foul lies," she said.<br>"Eh? lies, my Jehane? by God's head,<br>At Paris folks would deem them true!<br>Do you know, Jehane, they cry for you:<br>'Jehane the brown! Jehane the brown!<br>Give us Jehane to burn or drown!'--<br>Eh--gag me Robert!--sweet my friend,<br>This were indeed a piteous end<br>For those long fingers, and long feet,<br>And long neck, and smooth shoulders sweet;<br>An end that few men would forget<br>That saw it--So, an hour yet:<br>Consider, Jehane, which to take<br>Of life or death!"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So, scarce awake,<br>Dismounting, did she leave that place,<br>And totter some yards: with her face<br>Turn'd upward to the sky she lay,<br>Her head on a wet heap of hay,<br>And fell asleep: and while she slept,<br>And did not dream, the minutes crept<br>Round to the twelve again; but she,<br>Being waked at last, sigh'd quietly,<br>And strangely childlike came, and said:<br>"I will not." Straightway Godmar's head,<br>As though it hung on strong wires, turn'd<br>Most sharply round, and his face burn'd.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For Robert--both his eyes were dry,<br>He could not weep, but gloomily<br>He seem'd to watch the rain; yea, too,<br>His lips were firm; he tried once more<br>To touch her lips; she reach'd out, sore<br>And vain desire so tortured them,<br>The poor grey lips, and now the hem<br>Of his sleeve brush'd them.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">With a start<br>Up Godmar rose, thrust them apart;<br>From Robert's throat he loosed the bands<br>Of silk and mail; with empty hands<br>Held out, she stood and gazed, and saw<br>The long bright blade without a flaw<br>Glide out from Godmar's sheath, his hand<br>In Robert's hair, she saw him bend<br>Back Robert's head; she saw him send<br>The thin steel down; the blow told well,<br>Right backward the knight Robert fell,<br>And moaned as dogs do, being half dead,<br>Unwitting, as I deem: so then<br>Godmar turn'd grinning to his men,<br>Who ran, some five or six, and beat<br>His head to pieces at their feet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then Godmar turn'd again and said:<br>"So, Jehane, the first fitte is read!<br>Take note, my lady, that your way<br>Lies backward to the Chatelet!"<br>She shook her head and gazed awhile<br>At her cold hands with a rueful smile,<br>As though this thing had made her mad.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538879" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">This was the parting that they had<br>Beside the haystack in the floods.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=William+Morris">William Morris</a></strong></div>